More on EVE Online's tactical overlay

I worked out that what I had thought was a graphical glitch in EVE Online is in fact a useful feature of the tactical overlay. When I had the tactical overlay displayed and was activating various modules I was getting some changes in intensity of the overlay, and didn't know what was causing it. Zooming out a little further I noticed something I hadn't before.

The overlay presents a series of concentric circles, centred on your ship, with markers for every five kilometres. Before I had zoomed far out I suppose I had assumed that the concentric rings were shaded with a translucent white to help indicate the ship's relative position, but that isn't the case. The translucent white colouring extends to give an indication of the ship's targeting range, outside of which the translucent colouring disappears and the rings are entirely transparent apart from the markers.

When mousing-over a fitted module that has a range, this range is represented on the tactical overlay too. The module's range is indicated by a extra layer of translucent white colouring, making it slightly more opaque, distinguishing it from the ship's targeting range and keeping both ranges distinct. If zoomed out enough, the range is presented as a sphere around the ship rather than just rings.

This colouring of the various ranges is a great visual indication of the ship's capabilities without having to remember numbers or scan system readouts, adding to the utility of the tactical overlay in combat.

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Tags: eve online, tactical overlay

World of Villains Online

I was a little concerned when I bought my new computer a few months back. It was an expensive purchase and was replacing what was essentially a World of Warcraft arcade machine. As I had been burning out on a regular basis I wasn't sure I could fully justify replacing the computer, never mind that it was five years old. Having just spent the weekend bouncing from soloing in EVE Online to wreaking havoc in City of Villains before returning to the refreshed World of Warcraft, I feel better about my purchase. Not only is it the focus of my main hobby it is also an Intel-powered Mac, which has let me play the Mac client of EVE Online, and Crossover Games has enabled me to play City of Heros/City of Villains, as well as the Orange Box games of Portal, Half-life 2 and Team Fortress 2. Let's see what I got up to over the weekend.

It was double XP weekend in City of Heroes/Villains, and I wanted to take some advantage of the bonus to make some quick advancement. Magnet Magnetson bumped in to Melmoth and Zoso, from KIASA, to perform some nefarious deeds, and we ran around doing just that. I think we stole some underwear off a washing line, and maybe knocked on someone's door before running away, I was a little bewildered most of the time. I was not used to the sheer mayhem that was enacted before me as wave upon wave of enemy was thwarted apparently by steamrolling right over them. I'm not sure if being a Mastermind with lots of bubbles helped me to cope or not. I spent most of the time making sure my defensive bubbles were protecting everyone, and the rest of the time trying to catch up with where the other two had run off, meanwhile leaving my robots on aggressive mode to dish out the damage. Had I been a different archetype it's possible I could have got just as carried away and blasted anything in sight, and it was only because I was trying to take it all in that my mind couldn't cope. It was quite an experience, though.

I entered the Rogue Isles a couple more times over the weekend, revelling in the double XP extravaganza by, um, creating a new costume. I still hadn't created a second costume after running the quest at 20th level, and there I was at 22 in my old but still neat battle suit. Having luckily picked up some alchemical silver the previous day I could finally make the dragon wing costume piece that I had got the recipe for back before I'd hit 10th level, so I invented that before going off to complete the quest to get a cape. Zoso came along to help me steal a cape from a hero, and after that I hit the Facemaker's joint. I added a neat cape to my original outfit and created a second, more casual look for Magnet, with big dragon wings. I think it looks quite good, but it still isn't anywhere near to the thematic creations other people are clever enough to dream up.

Another solo mission or two got me a random invitation to team up, which I turned down as I was happy enough to take it easy. I was told that people in the team were levelling with each completed mission, and I replied that I was happy with already gaining three levels over the weekend. An incredulous reply came back seemingly belittling my lack of dedication to the One True Game that is City of Heroes (and Villains!), and that this random stranger had gained around thirty levels on several characters already by that point. I apologised and promised that I would try harder next time, just for him, before ignoring him and going back to enjoying my casual mission running. If only I hadn't wasted time also playing EVE Online and World of Warcraft I may have been a more credible gamer to a stranger. Shame on me.

My mission running in EVE Online continues apace. The new contact I made out in Lonetrek was sending me out to blow up Guristas most of the time, which was okay with me. My skill training has continued steadily, although I am a little without focus at the moment. Although I have plenty of interesting skills that can help me out individually I have no overall plan or goal to aim for, apart from getting a bigger and better ship. Having only just made the transition in to a cruiser it may be a bit premature to start to think about battlecruisers, although with the time required to train some skills it may be as good a time as any to start learning how to pilot larger ships.

Before I can pilot a larger ship I will need to buy a larger ship, which requires ISK. My wallet has not only recovered from the millions spent buying, equipping and insuring my Caracal but also jumped a few million higher than before that expenditure. Whilst the mission rewards, time bonuses, and pirate bounties continue to bring in some good money it is still the salvaging business that is my big earner. I have probably earned a couple of million ISK from missions, and in the same time the salvage that I have brought back and sold has netted me around six million ISK. It takes a little while to clear up after myself on a mission, but it's a great source of income. If only vacuuming were as profitable.

I took another speculative look around for different agents. I was making some good money from the agent in Lonetrek, with her +7 quality level, but I wondered if my continually rising faction standing might make more people amenable to dealing with me. Two agents jumped out at me in the list, offering another leap upwards in quality, being +17 and +18 the pair, and to make finding them even more attractive they were both in the same station, somewhere in The Citadel region. I pulled out my strategic maps, found their star system and plotted a course. The system wasn't too many jumps away, using Jita as a base point for convenience for now, and although it is in the low-end of high security space it was still in high security space. There are some systems fairly close that are low security, and I will have to watch out for that when asking for missions, but hopefully I can keep clear of any real trouble.

I packed my essential equipment in to the hold of Tiger Lily and made the trip to The Citadel. I spoke to both agents after I arrived and ran a mission for each of them as an introduction, happily not getting a courier mission to begin with this time, and received a nice chunk of ISK as a reward. I am looking forward to dealing more with them soon. They had more work for me lined up but I excused myself, saying that my LARP group needed me to get dressed up as a gnome and run around stabbing things with nerf daggers. I hope admitting to that won't affect my standing with them; at least I didn't mention the pink hair. I fired up World of Warcraft to join my weekend transatlantic group.

All but one of the group has hit 60 in World of Warcraft, and I found them wandering around Hellfire Peninsula looking for parts of a crashed zeppelin. With the huge zones of Outlands being shared almost equally between Horde and Alliance one of the group got a lesson in how people can be jerks that he had surprisingly managed to avoid in the almost-deserted Azeroth when various other characters kept picking up the zeppelin pieces that he was seeking. Yes, people will ignore that you're fighting a mob whilst standing on the quest item, they will loot it anyway. The real frustration is that there is nothing that can be done to discourage such behaviour. Even so, there was plenty of zeppelin parts scattered around for the handful of us looking for it, and there was no problem completing the quest before moving on to a different one.

I mentioned above that I had been burning out in World of Warcraft quite regularly. There were several factors invovled, one of which being running out of anything to do on my two level 70s, which prompted me to jump servers, and continent, to start a new character after some friends invited me to join them. Another factor was having done it all before, and Azeroth was quite boring for me to work my way through yet again, although this was helped along by the decreased levelling time as all as the new content in Dustwallow Marsh. Even so, there wasn't much appeal to Azeroth and without my friends I couldn't shrug off the malaise easily. But going back to Outlands is like a breath of fresh air.

Even though I have completed the Burning Crusade expansion's content twice already it still seems relatively new and exciting, something different, more interesting. Maybe it is simply it being less familiar than Azeroth, or maybe it feels more open yet cohesive as a whole, but rather than languishing in my fate of the next zone I am now positively looking forward to progressing through the different areas again. I didn't get much time in Outlands this week, and differing time zones don't help with getting together with the group, but I hope to get plenty of opportunity to enjoy the Outlands as a rogue.

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Tags: agents, city of villains, crossover games, eve online, half-life 2, jita, knifey, lonetrek, magnet magnetson, orange box, penny ibramovic, portal, the citadel, world of warcraft

Lacking intelligence ...in space!

I made what must be a noob mistake in EVE Online. When I first became a capsuleer I trained in the learning skill, remember others mentioning its importance, as it reduces training times for all other skills. My training in the Caldari military had also given me a boost in both giving me an iron will and better spatial awareness, adding to my willpower and perception, just right for piloting and space combat.

However, what I hadn't realised was that I had not received any boost to memory or intelligence. At least, not until last night. There was a mental block between knowing I needed to buy skill books for some skills and realising I was missing training in having an analytical mind as well as instant recall. I bought the books off the market and spent a few hours training both, with them having the benefit of being the primary and secondary skills needed for training in learning skills, the category they both belong to. This meant that training in analytical mind and instant recall made it quicker to train in them further.

As I mentioned above, neither memory nor intelligence have a direct effect on most of the skills I rely upon in piloting and combat, but learning many secondary and quite useful skills rely on them both. By boosting them a little my overall time to learn other skills is greatly reduced, and those handful of hours spent boosting my mind will be recovered quickly and pay off for far longer. Another benefit is that it reduces the time needed to boost my spatial awareness and iron will, which certainly does help when training piloting and combat skills.

It's good to be smarter.

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Tags: eve online, penny ibramovic

Super Mario Bros. vs. Burnout 2

Over at Killed in a Smiling Accident Zoso posited a theory about on-line gaming and how players flit from game-to-game after their first experience with the genre. That got me thinking about how I like both platform and racing games as genres and will seek out new games of that type because they appeal to me on a fundamental level. When I play those genres I also have some games in mind that, to me, are the pinnacle of game design, balance, and enjoyment, which are currently Super Mario Bros. on the NES for platform games, and Burnout 2 on the Gamecube^[1] for racing games. It is certainly possible for those games to be usurped by better examples of the genre, after all Burnout 2 is quite a recent game considering my twenty years or so of playing racing games and has displaced others, but at the moment I consider them both to be the best example of the genres that I have played to date.

It was when I was thinking about both games and what appeals to me in each of them that I realised a similarity to both games. It may seem odd to compare a modern racing game like Burnout 2 with the relatively ancient 8-bit Super Mario Bros. but there is certainly at least one striking similarity between the two games that creates an appeal for me: both games have an initial set-up that is constant, and if the game is played the same way by the player then the game behaves predictably each time.

As was typical for just about any genre of game at the time, Super Mario Bros. has each level's obstacles laid out in a specific manner as part of the design of the level, and each time the level is played everything is reset back to these initial conditions. There is no change in what enemies, power-ups, or obstacles are placed where between sessions.

In Burnout 2, the game has a feature that allows the entire race to be played back for review after it has been finished. To achieve this, and I am making assumptions here that may well need to be corrected, the game makes use of parametric equations so that, given an initial set of conditions and some mathematical formulae, series of events can be determined. Rather than storing the video information for the whole race, which would require a large amount of memory, the game instead stores only the player's input and some initial 'seeds'. Using this information the game then effectively replays the race dynamically, calling the same code as for a normal race, but with the player's inputs replaced by the saved inputs. As the same code is called for playing the replay as for playing the game then the same traffic, lighting effects, and collisions are all recreated as before, because it is a deterministic process.

That each game has a consistent set of initial conditions is not the appeal of the game for me, but it is the cause of the appeal. The initial conditions allow for a repeatable experience each time the game is played and, more importantly, and experience that can be perfected.

The enemies in Super Mario Bros. are all dependent on the player being present, in that the Goombas, Koopas and all the others don't wander around until Mario forces them to appear on screen. Similarly, the traffic in Burnout 2 is triggered when the player reaches a certain point on the track, the traffic not advancing along the road independently of the player, as evidenced by the same traffic being present in the same place on each separate lap, such that it must reset on each lap. Thus if the player progresses at the same rate and performs the same actions each time he plays a level he will encounter exactly the same experience, and hence where the promise of being able to perfect the game comes from.

It is possible in Super Mario Bros. to run at full speed, holding down the 'B' button to make Mario run, collecting coins, hitting blocks, and jumping on enemies' heads and complete levels with no surprises, as long as the same pattern of moves is performed within a tolerance each time. This means a player can practice and work out the enemies' movements and where all the power-ups are and be able to defeat the game by perfecting it. The same is true for Burnout 2, where once the course and traffic placements is known, along with some skill in controlling the player's car, it is possible to race around the level following a determined pattern that allows for a perfect experience.

This link between two quite different games, published some twenty years apart, fascinates me. It gives me the motivation to continue playing until I have 'solved' each level, when I have the ability to race confidently and fluidly at full pelt through the paths whilst avoiding the obstacles with practiced movements. Getting through a level of Super Mario Bros. the same way I have done many times before, or getting a perfect laps with continuous burnouts in Burnout 2 gives me a sense of achievement different from other games, but a sense of achievement none the less.

[1] It must be noted that the choice of platform for Burnout 2 is based solely on having only played the game on the Gamecube and is not suggestive of that being the definitive version.

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Tags: burnout 2, gamecube, nes, super mario bros

EVE Online Strategic Maps

I mentioned yesterday about heading in to the Lonetrek region to find a new agent. Space in EVE Online is split up in to large regions, within which there are constellations, and the constellations are made from individual solar systems. All of the stars of these systems can be found on the three-dimensional map, which also shows regional names, and allows for inspection of the security status of the system and the route needed to jump between systems. Jumping between constellations and regions is no different from jumping between solar systems, they are just boundaries on a map.

Unfortunately, my puny meat-head finds it difficult to use the three-dimensional map. The stars are not named until the cursor is moved over them; with the whole galaxy represented in the map, even though the more distant a star is the smaller it is displayed, moving the cursor around the map is not an easy way to find out local information. The map can be zoomed in and out and rotated, and whilst this can help to isolate stars to find out information about them it can also change the viewpoint enough to disorientate and make the surrounding area look unfamiliar again.

It is possible to set a destination for a mission or from having found an agent and then call up the map, and the route will be highlighted, jump to jump, showing which systems will be passed through and the security status of each. It generally has to be assumed that the on-board computer has picked the optimal path, which I imagine to be the case but it still isn't easy to check.

This is why, almost on a whim, I picked up the EVE Online Strategic Map book. I'm not one to buy guides for games, partly because I think most of the enjoyment of a game is gained from working out what to do yourself and partly because I believe games shouldn't require a separate book to be able to find out almost-essential information. In the case of this atlas, I consider it to be a useful aid in navigation and geography. Every system in the game is represented in a two-dimensional grid with all jump paths marked, even distinguishing between local jumps, constellation jumps, and region jumps.

The book really is just a factual companion to the galaxy. There is nothing in the book but maps. Every region is shown in relation to every other, and every region has its entire star structure detailed. The security status of each system, as well as how many moons and asteroid fields are present, whether there is a space station in the system and what facilities it has, and any other information that would be useful to a space cadet is included. It may not be reading material, but it gives a helpful representation of the galaxy that is easier to scan than the three-dimensional map. It is also pretty much the only way I knew that I had travelled between The Forge and Lonetrek regions.

Considering how much low security space there is in the galaxy, there is perhaps a lot of the book that I won't be using. However, what I will be using of the book looks quite handy at the moment, as I am picking my way between systems, and I think it is worth the cost. If this were still the age of buying games in boxes with manuals and extra materials, the EVE Online Strategic Map book would be an essential inclusion.

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Tags: eve online, lonetrek, maps, the forge

Tiger Lily's first flight

I boarded my brand new Caracal cruiser last night, christening it Tiger Lily. It has comfy seats, an iPod connector for the stereo, and what a capacitor! No three-pronged effort here, but a Catherine Wheel of brightly lit energy, teasing me to try to drain all that power. The CPU and power loads are far greater than I'm used to in a frigate as well, and even after I fit a full complement of launchers, a salvager, shield booster, ship scanner, weapon disruptor, afterburner and warp core stabiliser there was plenty of both left to spare. I can spend some time hunting down hungry modules that I can experiment with.

I took Tiger Lily out for a test flight, heading over a couple of jumps to pick up a couple more skill training books, before picking up a simple mission from my current contact in Jita to give the new systems a workout. I got a lesson in scan resolution on the mission, after wondering why I needed to be so close to the target to lock on and why it was taking so long to gain the lock. I'm not sure why I thought this would be related to scan resolution, it could have been intuition or it could have been a more logical process that ruled out most other attributes of the system, but I logged in to a local system's knowledge base and found some information about radar systems.

The scan resolution of a radar is related to its effectiveness in both range and targeting speed, which was interesting but didn't fully answer my question. I had thought that my new Caracal was more capable than the Kestrel in targeting, but it didn't seem to be the case. The clue came at the end of the article, pointing out that some systems can adversely affect the scan resolution, systems like a warp core stabiliser. I called up the data sheet on the stabiliser I had fitted and, sure enough, there was the information about reducing the scan resolution and targeting time by 50%, which was quite an affect. Had I been more thorough initially I may have looked up what scan resolution was before I fitted the module; on the other hand, learning about it whilst trying to lock on to multiple hostile targets is a lesson less likely to be forgotten.

Having only fitted the warp core stabiliser as a paranoid measure, as I'm relatively sure I'm not likely to need it in high security space, I disabled the module. This brought my targeting range and speed back up to normal, with the range greatly increased over the Kestrel but targeting time still a little increased. With the Caracal being able to lock on to more targets simultaneously the increased targeting time isn't so much of a problem, and I have more reason to train my targeting skill again.

One of the skill books I bought was for long range targeting. Whilst I have just gained extra range from the new ship it seems like a good skill to have, and one that leads to being able to use a new class of scanners. I'm hoping I'll be able to find a better scanner than the one I have fitted. The ship scanner I have lets me know what modules are fitted to a ship, but I suspect it is just letting me know if a ship will have any loot on it once defeated. I am not getting any information on what weapons, shields, or radar the ship is using, which is the sort of intelligence I am keen to collect. More investigation in to scanners and scanning is required.

The Caracal seems competent enough as a gunship. With five high slots available, including multiple launcher and turret hardpoints, there is plenty of firepower, and the five medium slots offer room for some interesting upgrades to shields and sensors, with a fitting or two left for some ECM once I get to grips with it. I fitted a weapons disruptor, mostly out of interest, and tried to use it during a mission. I have no idea if it was useful, and it may be of more use during battles that last for longer than a few salvos of missile fire. Without a detailed combat log to pore over at the end of a mission it is difficult to calculate how effective various weapons and systems were during a fight, and maybe I should investigate to see if there are better logging options.

As for my new agent, I headed out to the Lonetrek region to speak to her after completing the mission in Jita. My previous first contact with a positive-quality agent resulted in a simple and unexciting courier mission, so imagine my disappointment when this new agent asked me to do something similar. I considered it possible that a courier mission is a way for an agent to test out new contacts, giving a simple task initially to build up an initial reputation before giving more important work, so I took the task on hoping tha it would lead to more interesting and lucrative missions soon.

Even so, a courier mission may not be the best way to test a new pilot, as it really doesn't seem too challenging to deliver some cargo to a destination one system away. Or it wouldn't, if the pilot remembered to take the cargo with her in the first place. After I arrived at the destination with an empty cargo hold I reconsidered my position on a courier mission being a poor test, made the jump back to my new agent's system, picked up the goods from my items hangar, then headed back to the destination again. Having successfully completed that mission and embarrassed myself I did indeed get a more interesting mission to blow things up ...in space!

It was getting late, the time having flown past investigating systems and modules, and flying to systems without cargo, so I completed the mission of vengeance I had just accepted—and it was nice of one of the ships to be carrying a cruiser-class afterburner for me—and then docked for the night. I'm looking forward to developing a relationship with the new agent, building up a standing, and maybe looking to taking on higher level missions.

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Tags: agents, caracal, eve online, jita, lonetrek, penny ibramovic

Wrecking wrecks

It's a good thing that the wrecks of spaceships are generally tougher than the spaceships themselves. For example, they can take a missile blast from close range without disintegrating.

In perhaps related news, I need to remember which button in the cockpit activates the launchers and which activates the salvager module.

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Tags: eve online, penny ibramovic, salvage

Agents and intelligence

It could really have been just an ordinary evening spent in EVE Online last night. I flew a few missions, salvaged some modules, made some ISK. There doesn't seem to be too much to report on. The most interesting event of the evening seemed to occur during one of the missions. I got sent out to take care of a rat problem, with some Serpentis pirates attacking convoys in the system. It was just an ordinary mission at first, until I realised what the big hunk of debris was drifting ahead of me: it was a derelict space station! This is nothing relevant to the mission, but it certainly added to the atmosphere to see a few waves of ships scrambling out of the docking hold to engage me as the intruder, and it's always important to maintain some sort of atmosphere in space.

My agent sounded like he was getting bored with me as well. He asked me to get a Quafe formula back from some traitor or other at least twice in the few missions I ran last night, and I've done that a few times previously too. I think it's his way of hinting that I should find work elsewhere, which I started to do. Even so, the apparently mundane evening of missions was punctuated by a remark he made to me before I headed out to take on the Serpentis rats.

I was informed by my agent that the Serpentis tend to throw thermal and kinetic damage at enemies, and that whilst they have some decent armour their ships cannot withstand a sharp point so packing some kinetic-damage weapons would be a good idea. I unloaded the thermal-damage Flameburst missiles from my launchers and replaced them with the kinetic-damage Bloodclaw missiles instead, fitted a system to mitigate some thermal damage, and headed off to complete another successful mission. I had already found some intelligence about various factions and the damage they deal and are vulnerable to, but the interesting aspect was that the information on the Serpentis conflicted with what I had just been told. I corrected the information and thought little more of it. At least, until several hours after docking for the evening.

There were a few factors that all came together in my thinking. The intelligence shared by the agent, I had been thinking about engaging in some electronic warfare, I had enough money to at least think about buying my first cruiser, and that I was looking for a new agent. Taken separately, they were just single steps that I could muddle my way through, but combined they could become something more!

I had taken a look on the market for some ECM systems, after having looted a system that affected gravimetric sensors. There are quite a few different types of ECM system, all affecting different types of sensor arrary, as well as a multi-type system that wasn't as effective as the specialist ECM systems. I made the assumption that the cheap, low-threat rats I fight were probably using simple radar and nothing more fancy, buying myself an ECM system that was effective against radar systems. But now I'm thinking there must be a better way than trial-and-error to finding out this information.

There must be some ship systems that can be fitted that allow intelligence to be gathered about the rats' ships, and other enemies. I have found some scanners in my lootings, allowing me to work out the composition of an asteroid to what a ship is carrying in its cargo. I am sure there are some sophisticated systems that will let me see what systems another ship is equipped with. Maybe if I were to fit one of those to a ship I could scan the ships and determine what sensors they were using, gravimetric, radar, some other type; what weapons they employ; and if I'm lucky what type of shield and armour the ship has. It perhaps won't be of too much use in that particular sortie, although changing launcher loads is possible in-flight, but if I gained enough intelligence and knew my opponents before heading out in to space I could equip just the right systems to engage them effectively on both weapons and ECM capabilities. As is often said, 'knowing is half the battle'.

It's difficult to fit extra systems to frigates, as they are too small to carry much, but a cruiser has more hardpoints and plenty of CPU and power to handle extra systems. It may not be the best idea to remove shield boosters and damage systems from a frigate so that I can scan an enemy, but with the extra slots on a larger ship it would be possible and even prudent to fit systems that would allow the gathering of intelligence and being able to compromise the enemies' on-board systems.

Looking for a new agent found me a contact three systems away, with a quality of 7, quite a jump from the -2 quality of my current agent. However, my last look for a new agent found me someone with a positive quality level, an agent who was in public relations. I decided to see what kind of mission and rewards I'd get and took the seven-jump flight only to be asked to act as a courier, which was disappointing but not unexpected for a PR job. I completed the task offered anyway, for a measly reward, and headed back to Jita. The new contact I found last night, now available to me likely owing to my increased standing in the faction, is in security, which I am hoping will lead to offers of rather more interesting missions.

My last act of the evening was to buy a Caracal cruiser to travel to the new agent's system. I bought the cruiser so that I could investigate the type and quality of mission I would be getting in a powerful and capable ship, hauling some extra equipment in cargo, without having to haul several ships over multiple runs between systems. The cruiser will also allow me to fit more varied systems, including a scanner, bringing the new plan together nicely.

My relatively normal evening had evolved after some reflective thinking. I had gained some intelligence about an enemy, experimented with ECM, found an agent to check out, and bought a cruiser. Now I have a plan: I will investigate ship scanners, train in them if necessary, determine what systems the enemy uses, and equip myself to interfere with their systems as much as possible whilst blowing the crap out of them. This plan may not be feasible, I don't know yet, but I have a plan and this gives me focus and direction.

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Tags: caracal, electronic warfare, eve online, intelligence, jita, penny ibramovic

Cheese still gives me nightmares

I didn't sleep terribly well this weekend. I had two nightmares Saturday night, both waking me up and one causing me to try to scream in my sleep, which wasn't pleasant. This left me feeling a bit tired on Sunday, although it was mostly a pleasantly relaxing day. I was looking forward to getting an early night, though.

Plugging in my iPod Touch to recharge it in my computer Sunday evening reminded me that the 2.0 software had been released on Friday, which included the new application functionality. I decided to upgrade the firmware on the Touch and started the large download and update process. What I hadn't done was taken in to account that all my music, video and other user data would have to be reloaded in to the Touch after the update. This makes some sense, having a computer on which to back-up all the information and updating the firmware on a blank device, but it meant having to upload some 22 GB of data again.

The data upload took rather longer than the simple upgrade process I had expected, and the already getting-late hour meant I ended up not getting the early night I had wanted. On top of that, I had another nightmare and woke up with another little scream.

But wait, I had eaten some Stilton with blueberries on Saturday evening, and last night I had some Saint Agur blue cheese at about the same time. Have I forgotten that cheese gives me nightmares?!

On top of that, it looks like the 2.0 iPod Touch software has some changed behaviour. It used to be that when swapping between music and video the current music playlist's position would be stored to be recalled when swapping back from video, but now the music playlist resets whenever video is played. I am hoping that this is undesired behaviour and will be fixed soon, rather than it being a fix for the previous undesired behaviour.

Posted in Audio, Personal | 3 Comments »
Tags: cheese, ipod, nightmare, sleep

Kung Fu Panda

I previously mentioned in passing seeing a trailer for Kung Fu Panda, and in finding out the anthropomorphic tiger in the film is in fact a tigress that I had to see the film. The trailer looked jolly enough, although the film didn't look to be much more than a simple kids film with some animals kung fu fighting their way through some jokes, so when the opportunity arose to watch the film I was happy to see it but set my expectations low. This meant I was not prepared when the film turned out to be at least as good an animated feature as The Incredibles in terms of characters, drama and comedy.

The story seems simple enough, but it is wonderfully layered with enough depth to keep anyone engaged with the events unfolding, and is not the usual or expected Hollywood-tale of an underachieving dreamer becoming a hero. In this case, it is shown that the hero was always there and just needed to be nurtured and brought to the surface. It is quite easy to mistake the film as being a standard effort to train an underdog to become a master, to give a message that you can achieve anything if you try, but there are many clues and hints that Po always had this gift and it was his destiny to achieve something great.

Destiny and belief are major themes in Kung Fu Panda. The villain, Tai Lung, believes it is his destiny to have the power of the Dragon Scroll and thus become the Dragon Warrior. Master Oogway tells Master Shifu that Tai Lung will escape his prison, but it is only because Oogway tells Shifu that Tai Lung escapes. Tigress believes that she was to be the Dragon Warrior. Shifu believes he is to train the Dragon Warrior and doesn't believe it is Po, and has to reconcile this with his belief in Master Oogway. Po wants to believe he can be a great kung fu hero but simultaneously can't believe a noodle cook can be one. Characters have an overt destiny they believe in, and one they attempt to fulfil, and everyone has a true destiny that is fulfilled by the end of the film.

There is also a wonderful and completely understated commentary on good and evil. Compare the reactions of Tai Lung and Tigress when both are denied the Dragon Scroll. Tai Lung devastates the village in an effort to take the scroll by force, Tigress goes to battle her mortal foe to prove she really was the chosen one. Tai Lung's destructive actions don't appear to him to be contrary to how the Dragon Warrior would act, and his actions coupled with his blindness to their inappropriateness is a clear indication that he isn't destined to be the Dragon Warrior. When compared to Tigress's dedication to her training and belief in herself we are shown the difference between good and evil, and although Tigress wasn't destined to be the Dragon Warrior we are shown her fulfilling her destiny through her choice of actions.

We are shown a lot in the film. That is, we are not told what is happening but shown. There are no flashbacks to earlier scenes, instead we are trusted to remember them when they become important. We aren't told overtly why certain actions or conversations occur, just presented with them and trusted to make sense. It makes the characters and story seem more believable, with the exposition coming from the characters themselves and forced from the script.

To help it all along there is plenty of humour in the film, and it is never misplaced. Jack Black gives a brilliant performance as Po, bringing his vigorous spirit to the character and coupling it with a childlike sense of wonder to give the humour a gentle touch, one that never seems incongruous with the gravity of the scene. The jokes are natural and genuinely funny, and the humour always feels human and not from a cartoon, which is perhaps quite a feat for a film featuring entirely anthropomorphic animals. The whole film feels smooth, with the truly serious moments never interrupted by some goofy slapstick^[1], yet other moments of gravity are broken by a naturally comedic line or action.

I cannot praise Kung Fu Panda quite enough, at least not without detailing every moment that made me smile, laugh, or care for the characters and their situation. Every character is wonderfully developed and made to feel real, with performances that are all strong and bring everything to life. The story is deceptively deep and confounds expectations of the genre whilst keeping a strong pace throughout, and the humour is witty, clever and never forced. And although Tigress is a little mean near the start it is understandable and she is just finding her way. I cannot remember the last time I enjoyed a film on so many different levels, and have been reliving moments and scenes from Kung Fu Panda for most of the weekend after exiting the cinema. This is a wonderful, beautiful film that deserves to be appreciated. I may well find myself watching it again in the cinema soon.

[1] Okay, there is one moment where this happens, but it keeps within context and is eventually important to the plot.

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Tags: animation, film, kung fu panda, the incredibles, tiger