Zoraptor

Giant Virus Opens Pandora's Box! Apart from the headline reading as if Nature has hired a Daily Mail sub editor it's interesting stuff. Very large viruses with (for one at least) very low number of previously identified genes.

Well, the drug dealer story sounds like it didn't exist at all in the released version. It doesn't, but that was unrelated to anything Radiant AI. They turned off both the ability to kill plot critical characters and for those plot critical characters to become hostile to other NPCs through their actions. When a non plot critical thief steals apples from in front of a shopkeeper it would be "stop criminal scum!" and he'd be chopped to sausage (indeed, the shopkeeper starts saying "stop thief" but stops halfway through stop for the plot critical one); so the general behaviour is still there and the problems at the heart of it remain. And that fundamental problem is that while the thief 'knows' he should steal he has none of the essential context of how he should steal, so he goes to a shop and steals stuff in front of witnesses and in broad daylight. For a functioning behavioural AI that is a fundamental error as it breaks verisimilitude, no real person could behave that way, be regarded as a thief, and get away with it. That's also why you end up with people raking carpets and the like.

[edit: I'm less than convinced by that drug dealer story, to be honest, or at least that it worked quite as described. Watching a character steal a pile of apples from in front of a shop keeper, one at a time, in broad daylight, in a crowd, while obviously being watched, that character being a thief and getting caught each time but not getting stopped because he was Plot Critical convinced me pretty much absolutely that their AI was... vestigial, in the I front, in practice if not in theory] I know about its failures because I played Oblivion, for my sins. It (or something similar) probably is the future at some point but it will have to overcome some significant problems with getting to a level of realism (verisimilitude, really) where it doesn't make you regularly facepalm.

Yeah, it's Keyrock's post about Tomb Raider with Thi(e/a)f substituted for TR and Garrett substituted for Lara. Delayed shock reaction from "headshot: 30 XP" and similar revelations. On more pleasant things, I'm playing Waking Mars which I'm liking a lot. Not surprising, having had a look at the credits and spotting a bunch of old LGS names. I actually fired it up just to make sure it worked OK (which it didn't, first time) and ended up spending a solid couple of hours playing, something which hasn't happened for ages.

I think so. i don't really understand how radiant works. Anyone care to explain? I know I could look it up, but I want an intelligent answer, not some random cyber-yokel. The idea of Radiant AI was to give AI knowledge, aims etc so they could develop their behaviour organically rather than have specific schedules and scripting governing their behaviour. It didn't work, leading to thieves stealing apples directly in front of shopkeepers repeatedly and house owners raking their carpets or staring at walls for hours. Radiant AI was a good if impractical idea, genuine scripting like in Gothic 3 was less flexible, but worked far better. Thought it was an open secret that the Radiant AI demo was specially scripted rather than being on the fly. The average 2005/6 PC would be considerably worse than a 360 in terms of power.

I'm not certain I finished it, though I definitely got past the big battle on level 4, and got frustrated by the level with all the teleporters (5?). My dad created the characters for me, so it wasn't a fully independent achievement anyway. I distinctly remember getting really upset when he went on a field trip with the computer, and one of his students killed most of my party.

Pool of Radiance? A game for parvenus and the nouveau rpgiche. Akalabeth is where the old school action is at. I was so committed to establishing my rpg cred that I played it in the womb*. (also, glad to see a certain someone has got rid of his steamprofile, I may have had an irony mediated infarction staring at the DAO badge that was prominently displayed there) *Well, I played the original Wizardry through to completion when I was like 5, at least.

Don't know whether Thiaf will have good AI; the murder simulator, QTEs, departure from the series' ethos and everything else seem to be pretty locked in though.

You said Z had a flashlight. That is pretty easy to see, in the darkness and all. Because he'd been told not to follow and it's generally a Bad Idea to not follow police instruction- especially if you end up shooting someone? Going by the timeline you linked to that has Martin arriving home at roughly 2.40 of the call after a 30 second jog, then spending a few minutes talking, then walking back. Going by wikipedia's timeline to clarify matters there's a (minimum) 2.20 minutes between Z hanging up and Martin's phone going dead, and it ought to take Z maybe 30s to walk back to his vehicle, at most. It's pretty much inescapable from that that Z didn't go straight back to his vehicle after hanging up. That isn't direct evidence that Z followed Martin further than he admitted- though the gf's testimony suggests that Martin felt that, at least- but if he took the stand you'd guarantee the prosecution would want to know what he was doing for that time and why he wasn't back at his car earlier.

Might work. The three wise men came from the east which in Australia's case would mean... Ah yes, fits perfectly.

If he had two free minutes, he could easily have got to Martin's house and back (there's no evidence he did though) since that is what everyone agrees Martin did, with a break to talk to his girlfriend at or around his house. When you only have one living witness and it's the guy accused it's very difficult to establish the truth about such things, but it certainly appears to be fact that Zimmerman had ample time, and opportunity, to get back to his car to wait for the police but it was only a few yards from where he had stopped where the incident occurred despite the weather conditions being unpleasant enough to warrant comment. It may not be fact but it is very likely that if Zimmerman simply returned to his vehicle, even at a slow pace, and waited for police then the last part of the incident would not have happened. If Zimmerman had been poking around further and still looking for Martin- which seems pretty likely to me given Zimmerman's obvious agitation, and provides a reason why he didn't go back to his warm dry truck- then Martin's feeling of being stalked by a creepy dude has more justification, with or without anything else Z may have said or done. The defence narrative was not proven to be false, but at the same time it was also not proven to be any sort of absolute truth either and will naturally seek to omit anything that puts Z in a potentially negative light, which would include things like trying to find Martin after being asked/ told not to in that missing two minutes.

What a load of rubbish. Jesus cannot be an Australian ... .. .

Well, Zimmerman apparently thought it was "****ing cold" yet took far longer than necessary to walk to his supposed end point and back, despite the weather- so much so that Martin could cover ~three times the distance at a "slow jog", in ~30 seconds, then walk most of that distance back after talking "a few minutes" just in time to- coincidentally, no doubt- find Zimmerman who had not managed to get back to his car in that time but had actually walked around a third of that distance from his 'end point' (E) towards Martin (F on the map; and away from his car). The link says that Martin covered around 5 times Zimmerman's distance, at either a walk of slow jog, and waited 'a few minutes' talking to his girlfriend yet Zimmerman had moved only around, what, 10 yards? since supposedly stopping his pursuit at roughly the point Martin arrived home, and ending his police call around half way through that 'few minutes' Martin was talking to his girlfriend. So, what was Zimmerman doing for the time it took Martin to talk for x seconds and walk all the way back to where he met Zimmerman? Enjoying the ****ing cold? There's simply no way Zimmerman went back to his vehicle directly or in any timely manner, based on the timings from that link. So, not exactly difficult to knock holes in the narrative- well, except legally, if the guy refuses to take the stand- just impossible to prove any alternative.

Dunno. Why did it take Zimmerman 4 minutes to get back to his car if all he did was walk, what, 30/ 50/ 100 yards, then back? That's one very pedestrian pedestrian, enjoying a quiet ramble on a wet and windy (and asterisking cold, apparently) night. Zimmerman may not have to prove his version correct, just plausible, but that also does not make what he says actual fact. And we have Zimmerman's word that he followed Martin somewhat since he admitted it (hence the whole "we don't need you to do that" from the dispatcher), the only point of contention is how much he followed; and his girlfriend's testimony supports that he at least felt he was still being followed/ thought Zimmerman was "creepy".

People can read, you're just telling a story of one way it may have happened, which is actually all Zimmerman had to do as well. There's nothing even slightly definitive about Zimmerman's overall story being true and there are plenty of ways that are either perfectly reasonable with respect to Martin or aren't flattering to Zimmerman about how they could have ended near his car- Martin deciding to go back and get his licence plate after being stalked by a creepy older male, parked up in his truck, watching him from the darkness, getting out and following him- for example- or Zimmerman being less than truthful about any extra provocation being given or who initiated the physical confrontation. Since Martin is dead and without any directly contradicting evidence being apparent the jury has to accept Zimmerman's version, but that doesn't make it true, only not disprovable.

"They were young, and needed a publisher..."

That is why it had to be not guilty, but it is also why it's a deplorable situation. Of the two people who knew the truth one was dead, shot by the other; and that fact was potentially decisive for the defence- though of course Martin might have confirmed Zimmerman's story, for all we know. The prosecution had to show that Zimmerman was not acting in self defence and was lying when the only (surviving) witness was Zimmerman himself, who (sensibly) did not testify so could not be cross examined. That is not a good situation at all as it makes it advantageous to kill the other guy. It's one of the few situations in which I'd be somewhat sympathetic to forcing a defendant to testify- in most places self defence has to be proven, and in that sort of situation Zimmerman would almost certainly testify voluntarily. With the burden of proof provisions differing significantly Zimmerman ends up with both the advantage of not having to testify and not having the other guy involved alive to gainsay him. If Martin stood up and said that Zimmerman jumped out at him so he tackled him, banging his head on the ground then it's two plausible stories of self defence against each other and it reverts to an armed guy getting out of a car to follow a 17 year old incorrectly and without foundation suspected of being a burglar (and who wasn't even trespassing, just staying with relatives) against a police suggestion. At that point, things start looking bad for Zimmerman.

I thought he would be found not guilty as soon as I read through a summary of the Stand Your Ground law (and I couldn't agree more how fundamentally stupid that law is) and it was probably the correct decision from the evidence and what little I saw of the trial. But it's a disturbing situation where someone can follow an innocent, unarmed person and get the benefit of the doubt- effectively- because that person is dead and cannot refute anything said about either them and their conduct, or the situation as a whole. I'm also less than convinced that had Martin wrestled the gun off Zimmerman and shot him that the police would either have taken so long to charge or that the groups that supported Zimmerman would have supported Martin, despite that being at least as much Stand Your Ground (probably more, really) as what actually happened. I also tend to wonder what the result might have been had Zimmerman been carrying and stabbed Martin with a knife, rather than a gun, as much of the political heat about guns specifically would have been removed.

"Director of business development for steam and steamworks" so probably not responsible for the programming, but probably was for the implementation/ targeting and the like. I'm not sure steam will even now win any awards for being well programmed, he was there for 8 years so he was likely (albeit I presume) responsible for the entire 3rd party bundling approach- which I cordially loathe, but has been massively successful at making Valve the arbiter of PC gaming.

Oh yeah, MoO is Infotari, isn't it? I guess someone might buy the IP from them, then we might finally get a third game in the series!

I'm not sure that bitterness really plays into anything negative, just how much is said publicly and any slant. It'd be worse if someone brought in to spearhead a new project simply didn't care or was incompetent, and neither of those seem to be the case. She just seems to be genuinely disappointed at the (perceived) lack of support/ active blocking. The situation was clearly pretty bad/ weird though, as the guy responsible for steam business development got the chop as well, and he was responsible for something even I would unreservedly say has been hugely successful- even if I fundamentally dislike its direction and effect.

There seems to be some stuff going down between Saudi and Qatar as well- the Saudi candidate won in the FSA/ SNC and the Saudis immediately supported the coup in Egypt while Qatar (more friendly with the Brotherhood) has been... tepid. In both cases the displaced groups/ candidates largely supported by Qatar, and in the case of Egypt it's one they've historically been antagonistic towards. Saudi has always seen themselves as champions of the islamic and arab cause, and dislike anyone challenging that. I suspect that their recent changes have a lot more to do with putting that upstart Qatar with their World Cups and annoyingly assertive foreign policy in their place than any Road to Damascus enlightened change of thinking on Saudi's part.

It's unsurprising that Valve's theoretical structure would not work in practice as nicely as it sounds on paper. It's got the same basic problem as communism, parts of it ignore that people are people and are not always 'nice' about things, and won't always do the objectively right thing. Most communist parties were theoretically non hierarchical with flat management structures as well. And it is a company that is pretty much only producing actual games since 2007(?) by buying up external studios, if it weren't for steam they'd probably have had to alter their structure by now for being unproductive. I'd suspect the reason she got the tech rights was because she was obviously going to be stroppy rather than quiet, and it would make better PR usage of a product Valve had no more interest in.

I actually expected them to be made and distributed by EA as Fargo already has a relationship with them and they do similar things for other companies. Really though, it shouldn't matter who fabricates the boxes if they have no say in how the game gets made, and it certainly isn't the same situation as having a publisher who's basically your boss, in this situation it ought to be the other way around really, Derp Silver should do what InXile tells them to so far as boxed copies go.

There were- as always- people going slightly over the top in response, along the 'kill yourself plz'/ 'get cancer and die' variety to outright threats of personal violence. OK, we all know that 99% of such threats are just some anonymous moron blowing off steam on the internet, but it's easy to say that as someone it wasn't aimed at. The company's promotion of the prank call contributed to the extent and intensity of backlash once it all went sour, and it all happened on their time and ultimately it is at least partially their responsibility. If prank calls had been against station policy or they hadn't promoted the call it would be open and shut, as it is though neither was the case. But as I said, I don't personally have much sympathy for her, unless they were ordered to make the call. As much as the company promoted it a lot the DJs were hardly shrinking violets either. It's certainly a far different situation sympathy wise than someone falling off some scaffolding because it was old, poorly maintained and the company knew about it but ignored it, which is what such legislation is really aimed at.