Cav's Place

Got back to Disciples and managed to finish two more of those “Divine Empire” scenarios these days. Started number 15 Saturday and due to forgetting some things it was a very bad start, so I quit and restarted quickly, going well after that until I took a break. When I got back for a bit, before eating that night, a rash attack caused me to lose my good leader, but I knew I didn’t need a leader to complete that scenario, so just continued like that. Right after eating I did load an autosave, since I continue to not make any other saves while playing these scenarios, after trying something I realized wouldn’t have gained me anything even if I could succeed, but then continued to the end, finishing it just before going to bed. Then started scenario 16 the next day, but only managed to finish it just before starting to write this post, and that happened only because I wanted to get it over with and rushed after a point, as otherwise it could have taken a fair bit longer. So now I just have five left until I’ll be able to say I completed the game, since I consider this series of scenarios to be something like an expansion, and I sure hope I’ll get through them in August, and then write a review as well.

This week’s run was yesterday, ten kilometers again, the time again being just a normal one, 48:22, with sector times of 4:19, 5:11, 5:56, 4:28, 4:59, 5:55, 4:35, 5:09, 6:02 and 1:48, making for lap times of 15:26, 15:22 and 15:46. Woke up, grabbed something to eat, not including one thing I usually want to eat before running, and went out, not even drinking anything and not managing much when I went to the toilet either. But it was cloudy, so the Sun wasn’t a problem, though the humidity was. Wind was also not a problem until the end, when at the start of sector three of lap three I suddenly found myself heading into quite a gust, which was also a problem on the next longer straight. Did need to push a bit in order to manage that otherwise normal time, but the second lap’s second sector showed me that I could do better if I needed to, so I wasn’t exactly worried, though I did slip three seconds behind the time I was aiming for at the end of sector two of lap three and five seconds behind it after that sector three where the wind was something of a problem. Though that didn’t happen on those exact sectors, a few people were a problem as well and it can be said that they caused that loss overall, since there weren’t that many in the park but there were some, including a few that got in the way, either due to coming from opposite directions and coming together right in front of me or simply not looking when crossing or changing direction.

After running, ate some more and then went back out, going to the farmers’ market, and to this pharmacy that’s on the way, getting some stuff for dad from there too. That caused some problems though, since it took too long and then I had to rush once I got to the market, so I just had a quick look through the area where those selling fruit should be and missed the guy with some nice and cheap plums that was somewhere else, picking a few from some pretty bad ones that another had at that same price. But I was looking for apricots first, yet after dismissing the one or two that had expensive ones I ended up getting all of one kind of fruit that same guy that I also got the plums from after that had, which ended up being just very little over one kilogram, so paid for it as one… Yet those were actually small peaches, not apricots, and since the label just listed the price and I was rushing, I confused them, so I’m very unhappy with the fruit I got this time around. Good thing I didn’t lose them, at least, since I had left the bag with them there after I also got the plums, only realizing it after taking a few steps, stopping to try to put those bags into another and seeing I just had one, as the guy didn’t call after me.
That still left the matter of cucumbers and tomatoes, but by then I was really rushing, since it was getting closer to 7 PM, when that market closes, according to the listed schedule, though I did have a quick look around at least. The cucumbers I got are pretty bad, but I found no better ones that didn’t cost more, so I just grabbed the two thirds of a kilogram that an old woman still had. It was worse with the tomatoes, as I did mean to check exactly what one or two others had at that low price but eventually ended up grabbing some from two women, the older one looking and behaving like the proverbial mother-in-law. She first asked me whether I’ll buy all of those they had at that price, and I said no way, then she meant to pick them and put them in my bag herself, but I just kept the bag out of her reach and kept picking myself, so she realized she’s not getting anywhere and did something else for a moment, until I put the bag on the scale and saw that it was just a few grams over two thirds of a kilogram, so took my bag off the scale and told her the amount that’d be. She had none of that though, instead rather harshly asking what did I mean by that amount and taking the bag to check herself, saying nothing else when she saw the weight and I asked whether I had been wrong.
That was all I meant to get, but had also noticed a guy with the kind of peppers I want at a good price, so I got some of those as well. But he wasn’t nice either, not at the end at least, as he didn’t have the scale in reach and I gave him the bag to check the weight after I picked some, then after he said one more would be needed to get to one kilogram he complained that I put my hand on one and didn’t take it, though when he saw that the one I gave him after that was smaller he didn’t say anything else… And I ended up with a bit under one kilogram, in fact, and two or three of them were quite bad too, which I didn’t notice at the time since it was quite dark there, as it had started raining a bit. Only lasted for a moment though, so it wasn’t a problem on the way back.

Going back to the beginning of the period covered by this post, Wednesday I meant to write the review for Ember, but just as I was trying to get ready to start, at 3:30 PM, there was a power failure. Actually waited a couple of minutes, then called to see whether the machine had any estimate to give, but it was of course too soon for that, the only message being one for another area, which was supposed to have power restored around 8 PM. So I turned off the computer some seven or eight minutes after the power failed, which may be the longest amount of time yet, then called again, this time hearing a message for this area as well. Since it said that power was going to be restored around 7 PM, I crawled in bed, but it seemed that power was intermittently coming back on within minutes, and I’m not sure whether I had fallen asleep or was just about to when I was definitely awake again due to shouting and knocking on my door to let me know that the power had been restored. No idea why that was considered necessary, but that was it for sleeping then. Didn’t turn the computer back on just then though, logs stating that I only did that just before 5 PM. Then I started struggling with that review, but stopped after the positive aspects, briefly getting back to it to just start the bad ones before going to bed. Then I finished it the next day, managing to post both here and on MobyGames mere minutes before midnight. Then I read it again and made a few little changes before going to bed.

But the relevant part of this post took place Friday, when I went to the dentist to see what could be done about that chipped crown. The appointment was for 10:45 AM, but when me and dad got there the receptionist said it’ll be about 20 minutes more, then even went to ask the doctor how long it’ll be and came back to say that yes, about 20 minutes. So we got back here to make shopping lists, since we were going to go together after that, getting back I think just before 11 AM. But those 20 minutes stretched on, and it was 11:15 AM when the assistant told me to come to the other room and get on the chair, and past 11:30 AM when the doctor finally came as well. So I had a fair bit of time to just sit there, alone with my thoughts in a dentist’s office, and get more and more anxious, getting to the point of needing to hold off a panic attack that was starting to threaten.
The actual bad part started after that though, because the doctor came with two suppliers after her. They had arrived while I was waiting, delivering something and talking to the receptionist and to someone else who seemed to be the accountant, but they were also waiting for the doctor and when she finally finished with her previous patient she asked them to come after her and present their products while she was working on me… So she rushed in with them after her, quickly asked me what’s she supposed to do, then looked in my mouth and started doing something in there while talking to them, seeming to pay no attention to me and, as far as I can tell, taking a bit off the ceramic crown from the bottom, saying that hardly anything seems gone, it was probably an extremely thin bit, and perhaps because it was too big, so she’ll do that to prevent it from happening again. It was only when she said she was done that I could get myself to say that the bit that came off was towards the back, but she said nothing seems exposed there either, and that it wouldn’t be a problem if metal would be exposed anyway, though one would assume that if I wanted a ceramic crown I don’t want exposed metal in my mouth and therefore it would be a problem for me regardless of what she says. She tried to show me that it looked fine, but there was no way for me to see there despite her saying that it should be visible with the way she was holding the mirrors. And she said the crown was no less sturdy now that she just took a thin layer off it.
This definitely feels all wrong, and as if I went there to make things even worse. Yes, she didn’t charge for it, but she shouldn’t have charged for it anyway, since the crown itself should be under warranty for years to come. But instead of fixing what came off, somehow putting something there again, even if it was just a layer from the surface, she didn’t do anything at all about that and instead actually took a bit off the rest of it, and I don’t know how making it thinner could possibly not make the ceramic less sturdy. Plus that I couldn’t trust what she did there either way when she was obviously paying little to no attention to me, talking to those men about products and their site and prices. And those men obviously wore no masks either, and I’m not quite sure how much she kept hers on while talking either. It’s possible that she did, but I really don’t remember.

Either way, after that me and dad went first to Auchan, with the car, also taking the plastic bottles and one can which had gathered. We went in through different doors, since I was going to the recycling machine and he had something to pay first, but when I got to the machine I saw that it wasn’t working, so I just left everything there, alongside what had been left by others, and when I left I saw quite a lot more left in that area. So I went into the hypermarket quickly and dad wasn’t where he said we’ll meet, and he still wasn’t there when I got back, after getting cat food. But he appeared a little later and we talked about what each was going to get for a moment, but I wasn’t exactly sure why I came along, and my mood was obviously bad after what had happened at the dentist. Still, we had split the things that were on the list, so we went separate ways, yet he found me again as I was looking at something from his list… Something which we both forgot about after that, since he said he’ll look for other options first.
I did get what we meant to get out of what was on my list, plus some things for myself since I was there, so I won’t have to go again this week. And it was a good thing I got the yogurt then, and that I got two boxes of it too, because each box was scanned for the price of a single yogurt. I somehow forgot to check the price for them myself, so I don’t know whether it was an error in the system, but I do recall the cashier actually looking at the box and making sure she scanned the code on it and not one on one of the yogurts inside, so it’s possible that she noticed what showed up and wanted to make sure it hadn’t been her mistake. It also surprised me less than it should have when I saw the total, because it was just then that I was realizing that I had calculated with twice as much cat food as I actually bought, so knew it should be a fair bit less than I had calculated and didn’t yet know exactly how much. It was a nice surprise though, and once again showed that such mistakes at Auchan really are mistakes, since they can go both ways.
Still, after paying less there, I paid more to charge my phone card, and the guy there seemed quite clueless. I wanted to just activate it for a while longer, and had seen that there had been changes and that charging with just one Euro should offer 15 days now as well, but asked just how it is if I charge with that amount, to make sure, and the guy first said there was no active period offered for such low amounts, then corrected himself to say there was no grace period when I told him he was wrong. Then he looked up, saying he knows there were changes and wants to give me the correct information, but apparently he looked up the old information instead, as he told me I get five days for one Euro, ten for two. But I wasn’t sure those new terms were applying already, so I said I’ll charge with two, to make sure I’ll have it active at the start of August as well… Yet when I got the message, it said the active period will end after 15 days, so the new terms did apply and I could have charged with just one. The guy really seemed to have no idea though, not trying to get one more Euro out of me.
Went out after that, sending dad a message to let him know. It was starting to rain a bit, and I didn’t remember where the car was parked, so I searched for it for a bit, until dad called and told me, since he took a while before seeing my message. What was rather unpleasant was that, after realizing the car wasn’t where I thought it’d be, I stopped next to some beggars who kept nagging me even if I just ignored them completely. Got nagged a bit more after I found the car, after dad called, but I continued to ignore them and they eventually looked for others. Would have been very unpleasant otherwise, since dad said he’ll be out quickly but still took a while longer, and in fact I was just about to go to the free bus stop when I saw him coming out, with a full cart, since the free bus that comes here was supposed to come just then and I meant to take it and just send him a message to let him know. They did start nagging again when we got back to the car though, and quite insistently, but all they got was the 0.50 RON coin in the cart, which dad let them put back for us.
Then we decided to go straight to the other hypermarkets, with dad stopping at Kaufland and me walking to the nearby Carrefour, comparing prices by phone, so he got some things and I got others. A guard seemed to get very interested in me while I was looking at sugar after getting off the phone, since he stared and then followed right behind me as I searched for another kind of sugar, only stopping when I left that area. Not sure what I did then to make me suspicious in his eyes, but I might have looked a little suspicious later, after getting a bag of cat litter, checking the price, seeing that it was more than the listed one, and going back to take a picture of the price on the shelf, so I’ll have proof when I’ll complain, since dad had said that I should take one after all, even though it’s a bit cheaper somewhere else and he’ll likely get more from there after we’ll get back. Either way, got back to the sugar after that, first meaning to take a full batch, then realizing that there were I think ten in it, or definitely more than the six I had to get. So I put the batch back and took the six one by one, and I was doing that when the employee working in that area came and said that if he’d have known I wanted a batch he could have given me one, then realized I was taking fewer and asked if I had changed my mind and I said I wanted fewer in the first place. As I was walking away he asked whether somebody had punished me to carry so much, since I hadn’t taken a cart, and told me to take care of my back.
Since making sure they don’t charge less is their problem but making sure they don’t charge more is mine, I pointed out the price difference for the cat litter when checking out and the cashier seemed a bit bothered by that, saying she’ll give me the difference but just rounding up the change and therefore giving me only a third of it. I said that wasn’t quite right, but was about to walk away even so when she told me to go to customer service and sort it out. So I did just that, one person called for a price check, but I pointed out I had a picture too and another came and asked to see it, trying to figure out whether it was the same product. She didn’t quite seem convinced, so I was waiting for that price check, but after another moment she said there was no more need for the check and just gave me the difference, which was therefore on top of what the cashier had already given me. And I found a couple of coins on the floor there as well, plus one more earlier, I believe somewhere at Auchan.
Then I called dad to tell him I was done and to ask whether he had left already and I had to walk back, but he said he had just gotten back to the car, so I got back there and we came back together as well. Considering how much stuff he had bought, not even both of us could carry all of it back up at once anyway, and in a way it was a good thing because after going back for the other things he came back with some money, saying a guy had hit the car in the parking lot. He mentioned something about it being a good thing that he wasn’t just in that spot too, but I’m not sure whether he said he had just stepped back or that he had to quickly step back to avoid being hit. Either way, the tiny dent was supposedly fixed by just pressing in that spot, but when he asked what should be done about the scratches the guy just gave him some money and asked whether that will cover it. And it’s not like the car isn’t in a very bad shape anyway.

Certain design quirks make it quite obvious that Ember was designed for tablets, and I saw articles stating that it may be an all right game for the PC, but it’s an outstanding one for tablets. That may well be true, but it’s also irrelevant, seeing as I don’t care about tablets and will judge it solely on its merits as a PC game. What is relevant, on the other hand, is that, once you get used to them, those controls designed for tablets seem to me to work better on the PC than those designed for consoles that are so often found in bigger titles for a long time now.

Due to said design quirks and a beginning that may not be particularly inspired or original, it is possible that the first impression may be somewhat underwhelming, but rest assured that Ember really does get better as you go along. More importantly, the improvement isn’t due to the fact that the characters gain better and more interesting skills, which isn’t really the case, but instead due to the locations, the books and the enemies. And while the locations are the first improvement you’ll notice, as they will get more interesting until you reach the City of Light, which I’d say is the best the game has to offer from this point of view, the other two elements I mentioned probably require a few more details.
Hardly any of the books available in Ember need to be read and very few even need to be found in order to complete the game, but they offer interesting bits of history and lore, as well as various stories that are simply enjoyable to read, including quite a few that intend to be funny and usually succeed. In addition, various books as well as the game’s story in general also tackle current issues from our world, situations and problems that we’re facing and that we need to do far more about before it’s too late. As such, those who enjoy reading will find themselves searching for all titles and parts and keeping track of what they found and read.
As for the combat, it’s the enemies that make it interesting, the developers seeming to have put some effort into making later battles nicely tactical. This may apply even earlier, for some boss and elite fights or when you simply try to get through an area that’s way above the party’s current level, but late in the game even standard enemies make a tactical approach very much recommended. And I definitely remember the boss fights starting from The Bastille, plus some later elites, most notably the one at the end of a side quest that rewards you with one of the best pieces of equipment in the game. Playing on normal difficulty, using found gear and no consumables until the final battle, and without grinding and only rarely even using sleep as intended, plenty of these battles proved difficult, but they were always fair, a few even seeming a bit like a puzzle to solve. You will need to pause often, maybe move around a lot, possibly make good use of combos, dealing more damage by having characters use skills on an enemy almost immediately one after the other, but perhaps most of all in these battles you’ll need to pay attention to the icons that show up above enemies, indicating the skills they’re preparing to use, and act accordingly.

Yes, I know that the above will make some say that my playing style makes games unnecessarily difficult, but that’s just how I play, being very frugal, not using consumables until the end if I can avoid it in any way and not buying much of anything if I can find things I can make good enough use of. I would enjoy crafting, but while it is possible in Ember, I found it unnecessary before the end, which I guess adds to the freedom of playing however you prefer. But if you want to make things easier, on top of being able to change the difficulty at any time, you can gain as many levels as your patience allows, as I’m not aware of any level cap, by killing the enemies that respawn and by making full use of sleep in order to boost your experience gain from kills, you can craft the best gear available for the party’s current level, you can use various kinds of potions and food, which can be crafted as well, and you can also purchase runes from the merchants in the City of Light and Pinnacle in order to get just the skills you want. On the other hand, if you want a challenge or, as in my case, simply want to explore, you can visit locations intended for much higher levels and try to survive, seeing as there’s nothing other than the enemies to stop you from traveling to most areas even early on.

One other thing to mention would be that the game is particularly forgiving when it comes to party members getting “killed” in battle as well, since unless none are left standing, those knocked out will not only immediately recover after the fight, but recover with 20% of their health, and without losing any experience. I’m not quite sure what to think about that and there were only three moments, one of them being the final battle, when I continued after a character got knocked out instead of reloading an earlier save, but I guess I’ll take it as a good thing, because it once again offers the player the freedom to play as they wish… As does the fact that characters that join the party are always immediately raised to the level of the main character if needed, so you don’t have to worry about leveling them or choosing when to meet them.

On a different note, autosaves are also useful. You can turn them off if you want, but if you don’t, the game will save to the autosave slot not only after a certain time has passed and before major battles, but also just before using fast travel to leave an area. And since I mentioned being able to turn off this behavior, there are a few other potentially useful options, such as free camera, disabling moving the camera by clicking and dragging, or opening the inventory whenever the character sheet is opened, this last one being the one I enabled right away.
Back to the game itself, being able to buy back the last items you sold from any merchant, at the price you sold them, also offers some peace of mind, reducing the risk of losing something by accidentally selling it, at least if you realize it in time. But the last thing I want to point out as actually being very useful in the game itself is much more important, and that’s the information displayed when hovering the mouse over an enemy in query mode, including not only the exact current and maximum health, but also the level, class and a strength rating, which may be minion, standard, strong, elite or boss. Since elite and boss enemies are immune to certain skills and minions die very quickly but may deal a lot of damage if you don’t kill them right away, this is important to know.

Unfortunately, since there’s no highlight function and object names only show up when the Lightbringer is very close to them, entering query mode very frequently and therefore pausing the game just about constantly even while simply exploring is pretty much required due to the fact that this is the only way to see objects you can pick up or interact with outside the Lightbringer’s immediate vicinity. Worse, there are a handful of items, I think all of those I found being containers, that for some reason show up in query mode as if you could interact with them when you’re some distance away or in a spot from which the game’s pathfinding won’t allow the Lightbringer to reach them directly, but seem to be simple scenery items, not allowing any interaction, when you actually get close. And then there are also a number of items and containers that can’t seem to be reached in any way.
Also on the topic of items, those owned by others are handled in a rather strange manner. The name shows up on a red background, indicating that taking that item would be stealing, but you can take it with no consequences if no actual NPC sees you, those you can’t interact with not counting. However, if an NPC is in the area they will stop you and your only option is to put the item back. The character won’t refuse to try to pick up the item, which could have perhaps been a better option if you’re being watched, and there doesn’t seem to be any way to sneak or otherwise avoid notice. Some NPCs have schedules that will result in certain areas being clear at certain times and I found one NPC that didn’t seem to care that I was grabbing owned items right in front of her, which may have been on purpose considering her situation at the time, but otherwise if an NPC is there, even if their back is turned, even if they are asleep, they will notice you and you’ll apologize and put the item back, then continue as if nothing happened.

But those are little things, though there are even smaller issues that I noticed, such as the handful of typos in books or the fact that there’s a major discrepancy between what a character tells you about a certain important moment in history and what you can read about it in books found even right next to him. Much more notable but I’d say still minor would be the 99 item inventory limit, which seems to be a completely artificial limit added just to have one. But there are several containers to be found in order to expand it to some extent and you can always get back to sell things well enough, so if it didn’t bother me quite that much despite being the pack rat that I am, it’s probably just a little nuisance… As is the fact that items in containers don’t show up in the shop window, needing to first be taken out before they can be sold. And since I can’t fit this anywhere else, I’ll also mention here that all area maps are displayed completely as soon as you enter an area, with nothing telling you which places you already explored, making it a bit of a pain to make sure you don’t miss anything in open areas.

An artificial limit that bothered me more is the fact that you will meet three companions, but can only take two of them with you at once. It would make sense if there would be more options, but having to just leave one person out after you find all of them feels quite forced. Sure, the areas intended to be explored after meeting the last companion would have needed to be significantly more difficult for a party of four to make sense, but I’m sure that could have been arranged.
Something that bothered me even more when it comes to companions, on the other hand, is the fact that they have so little to say. Then again, it may take an accident to find that you can talk to them at all, as you need to click the main character and drag to a companion in order to do so, which behavior also applies in combat, though the character will say it’s not the time for it if you do so then. Not that you’ll be losing much of anything if you don’t discover this at all.

Speaking of clicking and dragging, though you can get used to it quite fine, that control system does feel strange on a PC at first. Click to have the Lightbringer go somewhere, with the companions following, but if you want a companion to move you need to click on them and drag to the desired location, which needs to be very close because they’ll turn right back if they’re more than a few steps away from the Lightbringer, and if the Lightbringer moves again they’ll reposition themselves as well. Also, for the skills that target a location instead of a single enemy or ally, you need to click the skill and drag to the target, which is also how you can target a single creature that’s different from the one that’s the current target, or when the character in question doesn’t have an active target at the time. And this applies to using items as well. Click on the item and drag it to the object you want to use it on in the few places where that is needed, and if you want a character other than the Lightbringer to use an item you must either have that character’s sheet open or click on the item and then drag it to their portrait.
Again, you can get used to this and it may even get to feel less awkward than the controls designed for consoles that are found in the PC versions of plenty of bigger titles, but you should be able to select a skill, or a party member, and then click on the target or destination, and the same would also apply to the “whole party” button. And speaking of that, a way to exclude one party member from a command, selecting the other two for it, could have been of some use as well, though this is a minor thing.

Probably the worst part, however, has to do with each character being limited to just three active and two passive skills, all of them being determined by the equipment worn and having no way to improve any directly. All you can do when gaining a level is distribute two attribute points among the four available attributes, the efficiency of the skills being determined by the associated attribute or, in case of some passive ones, by weapon damage. And whenever you find a better piece of equipment, you have to weigh the better attributes against the possible change in available skills. Yes, you can add runes to equipment in order to replace the skill granted by it, but runes are expensive and can only be used once, and there are only two actual rune merchants in the game. As a result, you’ll find yourself sticking to older and otherwise worse equipment to preserve the useful skills granted by it, and possibly carrying around a few different pieces of equipment in order to be able to use other skills you think may be needed. Which is not to say that a trade-off between positive and negative effects of equipment is necessarily a bad thing in itself, but characters having nothing to do with their own available skills is, and it makes for very limited and downright poor character development.

Character development is also harmed by the fact that maximum energy can’t be increased, except again by wearing certain pieces of equipment, and even then only by very little. And while I’m on the topic of energy, it’s also annoying that there are no numbers listed anywhere when it comes to energy use or recovery. You use or recover low, medium or high amounts of energy, but it doesn’t say exactly how much that is anywhere. Also, while some items that restore health can more helpfully state that they restore half or all of it, others, as well as those that temporarily increase attributes, follow that same rule and do not specify any actual values. It’s quite frustrating and doesn’t allow you to calculate or accurately plan much of anything.

And then there’s sleep, which I made little use of. The game seemed balanced even so, with enemy levels seeming just about right, and I finished it at level 24 when it seems to assume that you need to be at least level 20 at the end, with level 20 also being required by the best few pieces of equipment that can be found. But it just seems wrong to tie maximizing the experience obtained from kills to sleeping at certain pretty exact intervals. There is, of course, some logic in wanting the characters to sleep at certain intervals if the developers wanted to introduce that sort of thing, but it could be handled differently, while such rewards should be offered to players who go as long as possible without resting, or at least that’s how I see it. Instead, the experience boost obtained from sleeping once is determined by the time since the party last slept, up to a maximum of 25%, and gradually drops as you kill enemies after waking up, yet higher values can be obtained if you sleep again after enough time has passed and without killing too much in between. While, again, making full use of this is not needed, having a system that would greatly benefit the characters but making it an exercise in frustration to attempt to properly use it is quite annoying.

To finally move away from such details, I should also say that the story isn’t exactly much to write home about, and the way you choose one of the two endings also seems quite lazy, for lack of a better term. The books save the storytelling aspect of the game overall to some extent, but the story of the game itself pretty much just keeps you moving forward from one point to the next. I wasn’t sure where to put this, how to include it in the review, because it’s not really bad, and it also does quite clearly draw some parallels to some major problems from our world, but some quests, including parts of the main one, did strike me as quite silly, and I’m not referring to anything intended to be funny, so I guess it can go here after all. Again, it does its job I guess, but I’m looking at some of the writing in the books and can’t help but wonder why does it seem like the effort and even skill put into those entirely optional elements wasn’t also put into the game’s actual story, or the characters for that matter, for the reasons I stated above.

And then there are certain technical aspects that need to be mentioned. One is the fact that the game crashed quite a number of times when fast traveling between areas, though the autosaves made at those moments always worked and turned this into little more than a small nuisance, as I could always just get right back to where I was. A much bigger issue, on the other hand, is the fact that the game constantly reads data from disk, and at up to a few Mb/s. I guess this isn’t much of a problem for those with SSDs, but the wear caused by this may be a concern for those of us still using mechanical HDDs. The developers stated that, since the development of Ember started many years ago, they couldn’t switch to 64-bit, or at least make a 64-bit version, and were therefore limited in the amount of memory they could use, but since they also stated that textures are loaded straight from disk before being displayed and music and sound effects are streamed from disk as well, I’m not sure what’s taking up memory in the first place!

To conclude, Ember has certain design and technical quirks you need to be aware of and it doesn’t excel in any area, but it’s an all right game if you don’t expect too much from it. There are limitations, some of them seeming completely artificial, but with the exception of the particularly light and limited character development system they shouldn’t prove to be major problems. The world is open, allowing the player to explore as long as they can survive, but combat is the most important aspect and fortunately it does get better as you go along, with fights becoming quite tactical and not the sort of click-fest that tends to be the norm for action RPGs. For all of that, it’s a quite forgiving game and therefore caters to an audience that can deal with challenging moments but does not particularly seek a challenge. As for the story, it just gets the job done, but some of the books found in Ember can actually be quite good and finding and reading them may be one of the game’s best aspects, at least for those of us who enjoy reading.

Currently watching with anger as an old woman is clearing out the fig trees planted here a few years ago by a guy I understand is the father of the one living below us. Seems like the guy living here just noticed her now and started yelling at her, went out to argue too, but it’s too late for most of the trees. She justified her actions by the fact that she saw somebody hide a bag among those trees and come back for it later, and that she found some pieces of iron supposedly hidden there, and she doesn’t want such hiding places in front of her window, which actually is at a higher floor and not even right above us here, so not where these trees were. Even if the authorities would be called by this guy, as he’s threatening to do, at most they’ll fine her, and even that’s questionable, but nobody’ll restore those trees now…

But this post was meant to let me finally catch up, allowing this week’s second one to be the review for Ember, which I finished Sunday. Not that I’m sure I’ll manage to write that by the end of the week, of course, but I intend to try. Friday’s probably not an option though, since I’ll be quite a mess after needing to wake up early and go to the dentist, as last night while I was eating it seems that the crown put in a year and a half ago cracked and Friday morning was apparently the only free slot they had for an appointment now. It’s odd though, since I heard, and felt, something crack and managed to pull an almost invisibly thin piece of something white and brittle from there as I was eating last night, but it came from the back of the tooth, between it and the next one, which isn’t exactly a place you’d expect to have damage… Which probably also explains why the ceramic layer was so thin. Now I sure hope the crown itself is under warranty and what they gave none for was just the other part of the work, due to that pierced root, but even so there’s the question of how they’ll fix it, since if they’ll remove the crown it will likely cause issues with that tooth and increase the risk of something going wrong in the ways I was made aware of back then, so I’ll want to avoid that in any way possible.

Since I mentioned yesterday, the weather was very good for running then, hardly any wind, cooler, cloudy but not raining… But the forecast mentioned storms, so I couldn’t know it won’t even rain all day and didn’t dare to go when I woke up, and then I ate a bit more too and didn’t want to go after eating again, so I just went out in the evening to get a couple of things from Kaufland, also dropping off the recyclables on the way and having a quick look through Carrefour since it’s also there. Was worried I’ll be caught by a storm on the way back even then, since the time of the likely storm kept being pushed back but the warnings otherwise remained, but I barely felt a few little drops, and even those I think were more on the way there than on the way back.
But today I didn’t trust the forecast again, so while it still mentioned a risk of storms for most of the day, with the sites I check listing it as reaching or exceeding 50% from 1 PM last night and from 3 PM this morning, I woke up pretty early and went to run. Actually meant to get up when I woke up the second time, at 8:50 AM, but I noticed that the reason for waking up that time wasn’t that I really needed to pee again and soon enough heard dad in the kitchen, which was probably why I woke up in the first place, and since I didn’t want to bump into him when it was possible that he’ll mention doctors I went back to sleep and only got up when I woke up the third time, a few minutes after 10 AM. That was still quite fine, and I meant to go out at 11:30 AM, but after checking those sites again and noticing that 1 PM had changed to 3 PM I didn’t rush anymore and eventually only left around 11:55 AM… Without bandaging my toes again, but nothing else seemed wrong with the nails when I checked after I got back.
Ran 16 kilometers again, just meaning to stay under 1:20, or at most, if possible, just under that 1:19:29 that was until now the second fastest time over that distance. And even though I had to push a bit on the last lap, I managed that, the time being 1:19:26, with sector times of 4:27, 5:13, 6:03, 4:35, 5:08, 6:01, maybe around 4:33, maybe around 5:15, 6:06, 4:38, 5:22, 6:10, 4:37, 5:18 and 6:00, making for lap times of 15:43, 15:44, 15:54, 16:10 and 15:55. Sadly didn’t manage to stay under 16 minutes on all laps, missing that target on lap four, when the gusts of wind were also worse, and I also somehow forgot to check the time at the end of sector one of lap three, only looking quite some time later and not even thinking to see exactly where I was when I did so. If I would have at least done that, I could have used the next two laps to make a pretty fair estimate, but as it was I just know that the first two sectors were covered in 9:48. It’s likely that it was something between 4:30 and 4:35 though, but that range could get extended to something between 4:25 and 4:40, with the corresponding changes in the sector two time.

And now I have some more catching up to do, and I’ll start with what I did after running on July 11, when my brain didn’t quite seem to be working, likely after all that effort with next to no preparation. When I took the recyclables out, on the way to Carrefour and Kaufland, I became one of those people who are the reason why everything is picked up at once and then sorted again later, because I accidentally put the plastics in the paper bin as well. Then I realized I had just taken one bag and it’ll be hard to carry everything like that. Then I got a couple of things from Carrefour but forgot to wait for the receipt, just taking my change and walking away. Realized it a few moments later and went back to ask the cashier if I had forgotten it, but she said yes but that she had thrown it away, so I left it like that even though the whole point was to get a receipt in order to have another entry in their contest, since it was the last day. Then I had to turn around again after having walked away without retrieving the plastic bags and wrappings which I had placed in one of those cabinets at Carrefour, since there’s a place to dispose of such things at Kaufland. Then after getting some things from Kaufland I again spotted a 0.10 RON coin in the queue next to the one I was in, but there were several 0.01 RON ones past the checkout there too, yet when I looked again after stopping to arrange things in my bag I didn’t see any of them anymore, even though I was sure I had even stopped just on one.
Did get more careful after that though, checking everything to make sure I wasn’t messing up even more, worried that I may leave products behind or lose money. Also found one 0.10 RON coin on my way out from Kaufland, and then went back to Carrefour to grab one more thing, out of those that were discounted due to expiring soon, to have a receipt from there after all. Not that I’m sure it was even entered into the raffle, since that part didn’t load at all, and I didn’t have a good enough score in the game to win something directly. But it was rather funny when a family came to get their stuff from one of those cabinets at Carrefour while I was wondering whether I could leave mine in one without locking it, since I didn’t have any of the required 0.50 RON coins, and the guy kept farting, wondering out loud what was causing it before apologizing after noticing that I was down there and laughing. The security guard came to me after they left, noticing I was struggling with the cabinet door and thinking he was being very helpful by explaining that I needed to put a coin in there, then staring for a moment and walking away quickly when I showed him the 0.10 RON coins I had and asked whether he could exchange five for one 0.50 RON one. Had tried to use the machine at Kaufland that’s supposed to exchange 1 RON bills to 0.50 RON coins, which are needed for the carts there as well, but it didn’t work, apparently saying that it was empty.
After all of that, and after carrying some eight kg back in that single bag, switching hands plenty of times, I spent the evening and night stuffing myself, starting with plenty of watermelon and a big bag of corn puffs during the match. Then I made some food and stuffed myself even more, and then I finally took a shower, very late.

On July 13 I meant to just go to the farmers’ market, but then decided to also go to Auchan first. Had to dig to find a box of yogurt not expiring on the 19th, so I was trying to arrange the boxes more or less as they had been when somebody came to ask me where the goat milk was, realizing with some surprise that I didn’t work there after staring at me for a long moment when I asked how should I know. In fact I thought I did know, the place marked for goat milk products being right behind me, but wasn’t entirely sure at the time and didn’t bother to turn around to check, waiting for him to realize that my t-shirt was white and green, not red and with the store logo and that other text on the back. Either way, it’s a good thing I went to the free bus stop a bit early after getting everything, since the bus came two minutes early.
After dropping off the stuff from Auchan, I went to the farmers’ market. Got two kinds of cheap cucumbers, the cheapest ones indeed being worse but the other ones actually being surprisingly good. Also got two kinds of cheap tomatoes, but by then I was feeling quite drained by being among people and ended up rather randomly getting some of the less cheap kind from someone first and those were worse than the cheapest ones I got later. In between, was looking at plums and avoiding those where I couldn’t put them on the scale myself, which included those with the cheapest ones, but a man that had them listed at what seemed largely the regular price, just a bit above the cheapest, said when I passed by him one more time that he’ll sell at that cheapest price too, and that I could pick myself and discard whatever I didn’t like, which is of course a requirement if I’m to get anything. So I started putting some in a bag, but then he said that price was for two kg, mentioning again that I still had quite some way to go when I put what I had picked until then on the scale the first two times. But otherwise he let me pick, just commenting at one point that if I’d have picked them myself I’d have had to be fast, but as it was I just got to select the better ones out of those already picked, so I got two kg after all, and I still have plenty of them, checking each day to eat those that are more likely to spoil first. Either way, also got two ears of corn to boil, the first ones this season, and then got back.
After that I sort of watched the tennis match, getting more interested as that final set stretched on, and quickly wrote that post after it was over, worried that these moments will become history due to all those fucked up requests to introduce final set tie-breaks everywhere when those who want that have just about the whole rest of the season while those who still want to see tennis as an endurance sport only have a few tournaments left. Couldn’t shower that night, as there was no hot water due to a problem affecting a large part of the city, but there was the other match as well and I wouldn’t have found the time to do so anyway.

Going back to July 9, I got woken up before 10 AM by drilling and it was after 12:35 PM when I got back in bed, and clearly past 1 PM when I fell asleep again. Then at 2:12 PM the delivery guy called and woke me up again, to deliver the replacement for the new camera. As I had a quick look, I didn’t notice any issues as clear as what the first one had, and in fact I noticed one more white area which I had missed before in the pictures taken by that one, but eventually I did spot two white pixels in the pictures this one is taking too. The affected area is therefore smaller, and in fact more clearly seen in full resolution images, being harder to notice in lower resolution unless you know what to look for, but those pixels are also far more central, so I asked dad what to do, giving him the camera to have a look as well, but he pretty much ignored it. Recently he said he’ll take it to take some pictures when he went somewhere and he still hadn’t had a look otherwise, and just wanted me to change back any settings I may have made so he’ll just press the button, not having to care about anything else. And he didn’t actually use it even then, or at least that’s what he said when he got back.
Otherwise, that program update for Emsisoft Anti-Malware came that day, and despite being warned of it the previous night by the support guy it still took me off guard due to when it came. Didn’t make another backup, instead at first starting an update and stopping it in order to check what files were being downloaded, then updating again to let it finish, but after letting it update at 5:45 PM I thought it was getting pretty late and the update may not come that day after all, so when I let it update one more time, at 6:05 PM, to make sure that update had worked right, I didn’t really pay attention and realized quite late that it was taking too long to download. So I got the message asking for a reboot without having a new backup, but so far I’m not noticing issues, and in fact it seems to use less memory. The problems which had appeared earlier this year still aren’t fixed though, and the changes are obviously still in the wrong direction, but that’s a given.

And the last day I need to cover in this post is July 10, when I went to Auchan for cat food and several other things. Also took all the plastic bottles and one can which had gathered, but the can was the kind the recycling machine doesn’t accept, so I just put the bottles in, managing to make it accept all of them, though I needed to try multiple times for several of them and a message that one was refused showed up even though it was of a kind that was easily accepted otherwise and it actually took it in, so I guess it just didn’t give me the 0.05 RON for that one for some reason. Ended up with three tickets, since at first it timed out as I was getting to the second bag, as I had just somehow managed to stuff everything in the two bags that were still around, the large one that I tend to use for this more recently not being here then, and then I stopped it myself before the last two bottles, since I had tried to get it to accept them a few times already and didn’t want to get an error, but then they pretty much just worked when I tried yet again.
The free bus that took me there, referring to the vehicle itself, seemed new though, and it had luggage space above as well. The problem was that it wasn’t taller, so if I sat up straight in the chair, the bottom of that space was some ten centimeters above my head, and when I climbed in, carrying those large bags and not used to have something at that height to worry about, I hit my head against it as I was getting to a seat in the back. The ride was also particularly rough, all the bumps in the road being felt very clearly, some pretty much throwing me out of the seat and at one point making me split my legs very quickly before landing again, in order to avoid landing on my balls.

I’m quite sure I’m very close to finishing Ember, but I won’t manage it today, or even tonight after eating, since I doubt I’ll even get back to it before tomorrow. Meant to stay away from it completely today and instead write a longer post, to catch up on what I didn’t mention so far, since it was quite clear that even if I would finish it today I won’t be writing the review tomorrow, so I’ll need something else as the second post anyway and I’ll continue to try avoiding “Sunday updates” whenever I can. But when it seems I’m so close, it was even harder than usual to struggle to write something, so I got as far as I could and now I’m just throwing a very quick post here, just to say it’s the week’s second one.

The problem is that I’m getting increasingly worried about my left eye, and yesterday I guess I got scared enough to tell dad about it and he said he’ll schedule me to have my eyes checked out, and have his own checked out as well while we’re there, since he kept putting it off as well. Seem to remember the same thing happening back in 2007, in fact. And I was very worried then as well. And I really can’t remember whether the issues I’m seeing now just appeared some months ago and got worse now, which would really be a sign of something awful going on, or I just got more worried and am noticing them more now, or I first got worried then and even more so now, but they’ve been around for even longer and therefore are likely to not be that much of a problem. If that old post’s right though, it seems the issue that was spotted back in 2007 was in my right eye and the problem is now with the left, so not even one of the issues can be explained that way.

While I’m here, I’ll also mention that yesterday I went back to that pharmacy and actually found those pills I had decided on when I set my mind on getting something that should help my joints, considering that the pain in my left knee is definitely not going away and other joints may be starting to cause trouble as well, likely due to the running. Should have probably forgotten about that and worried more about my eyes, but first went there the day before and looked all over for what I had chosen, but didn’t find them and didn’t ask anyone. The thing is that I know that pharmacy has things you can just pick up yourself arranged according to manufacturer and I had checked the few other things they have from the same manufacturer, but I forgot what they were while there and only realized I had spotted some of those other things after looking again when I got back, so when I went back there yesterday I knew what to look for and, while still after searching pretty much the entire area where they could have possibly been, found a few boxes of these pills for the joints left at the back of a bottom shelf, invisible in themselves unless you bent close to the floor, but next to larger quantities of a couple of other kinds, which filled their section of the shelf and were therefore visible.

And since I mentioned July 19 already, in its early hours, when I came back to the computer after eating, I thought my mouse double clicked twice and also failed to click twice. But there are other explanations for all of those situations, which I actually tested to confirm that they will cause the behaviors I had noticed, and a few hundred test clicks over the course of the day didn’t reveal any issues, so at the moment I’m trying to calm down about it. Not that it’d be unexpected to have such an issue appear again, especially since I’m getting worried about things and something often goes wrong with my computer as well when I get messed up for other reasons, plus that it is summer, even though these days it’s cooler and raining again. But at the moment I’ll just hope it’s not happening, and that it really will last much longer than the XTD before developing this problem.

And still on July 19, went to the pharmacy on my way to the farmers’ market, where I went for cucumbers, tomatoes and green onions, just managing to fit the whole trip in between the moment when the clouds cleared after it had rained and the one when it started raining again, a few drops starting to fall as I was coming back and serious rain starting shortly after I walked through the door, with quite a wall of water coming down for a little while not long after that. And the tomatoes I got weren’t quite that cheap anymore and they were probably a little worse than those very cheap ones I was looking for, and which I didn’t find at that price anymore. I guess I could have found better ones at the same price as the ones I got, possibly even from the same people I bought those very cheap ones from before, and saw some that looked very good at just a bit more, but I bought them from some old woman and they seem usable anyway, so it’s fine… Even though dad bought more twice since, so now we have quite a pile of them and quite a few of them need to be used quickly…
Back to what happened at the market, I no longer found the person with the cheap good cucumbers that I was looking for, but found someone else that had a pile at that same price and decided to get some from there… And ended up being given all of them at what worked out as being just under half the listed price, and they’re good enough too. Had put some in a bag and asked the person there to weigh them, since the scale wasn’t in reach, seeing what I seem to remember as 1.23 kg, though it could have been somewhat more than that, and picking the smallest one that was left and telling her to add it there to get to about one and a third kilograms, so the price won’t involve coins. But at that point she just put all those she had left in my bag and told me that price, not weighing again, and confirming it after I asked whether she was sure of it, and when I got back I saw that they weighed 2.733 kg. As for the green onions, didn’t see anybody selling those I meant to get, but the price was listed, so I just left the right amount of money there, though I heard a person selling around the corner tell another customer that those were hers as well, so I took my time getting them in my bag and she eventually looked over, at which point I just told her I had left the money there and she said that was fine, but then since she was coming over anyway she said I could just hand them to her, which I did.

Ran yesterday, the time being 48:23, with sector times of 4:17, 5:04, 6:00, 4:32, 5:03, 6:02, 4:29, 5:10, 5:57 and 1:49, making for lap times of 15:21, 15:37 and 15:36. The idea from now on is to no longer look for good conditions when I’m running only ten kilometers, so I went out there yesterday even though it was quite windy and pretty hot in the sun, which meant I struggled a fair bit to manage to stay under 48:30. That bigger cloud that came at the end of the first sector of lap three and offered shade even in the places where trees don’t until I was close to the end of the next sector helped a bit, and seeing that I had to push over the last two sectors to make it, I’m thinking it’d have been very tight without that.
After coming back, I was in the kitchen when I noticed the hot water pressure dropping a lot, which was worrying since I hadn’t showered, but I kept doing what I was doing there until dad got back as well and said there was a note, which I hadn’t seen, saying the hot water will be turned off until 11 PM today. So I just dropped what I was doing and rushed to have a quick shower, starting with water that was quite cold, assuming it was just what was left in the pipes and won’t get better, only to later notice that it did get warmer after all, though the pressure remained low. Since it took a while longer before what came out the hot water pipe became cold, and rather brown, I could have even washed my hair, and should have done so, but decided not to risk it then. And it would appear that the hot water was turned back on quite early today anyway, though it remains to be seen whether it’ll be turned off again now.

But now I’ll leave the other things that happened recently for another time, because I really should stop and finally catch up on what’s left from June, with the exception of June 12, since that’s when I bought a light fixture for the bathroom and dad’s yet to replace the old one with it, so I’m leaving that to make one post about the whole thing whenever I’ll be able to. Then again, the only things left to say also have to do with buying stuff, and regular stuff at that, on June 15, 19 and 20.
On June 15 I meant to go to the farmers’ market early, but decided against it and just went to Auchan after the day’s first match, without even taking the plastic bottles, even though a lot had gathered. Actually left just before the end of injury time, but didn’t miss anything important and caught the free bus to get there faster. Just missed the one to get back though, possibly because it left a bit early, the next ones that came seeming a bit early as well, so I had to wait a few more minutes for the one coming after them, which was the next I could use. That one could also take me pretty close to the market as well, and I had intended to go there if I’d have caught the one I meant to catch, but it was already too late to go there that day and I was about to piss myself as well, since I didn’t go before leaving. Got off a stop late though, since an old lady asked me to help her with her purchases when she’ll get off while I was still considering whether to try to rush to the market after all or not, so when she asked where was I getting off after I agreed I said I’ll likely go farther and it’d have gotten awkward if I’d have stepped off with her after all. So I just helped her then and waited for the next stop.
On June 19 I woke up early, saw that it was 9:10 AM when I checked the time, and it was still early when I went out, taking out the plastics and then checking prices at Carrefour and Kaufland and just getting a little thing from Carrefour. Saw one of those yogurts my mother eats in the pile of stuff that was deeply discounted due to expiring soon and I tried to bury it under the others, which were the kind with fruit, until I’ll get back from having a look at Kaufland as well, but that whole pile was gone when I got back. Either way, after getting back here I quickly stuffed the plastic bottles, plus two cans, in bags and caught the free bus to Auchan, where I also got 1 RON from the two coins in carts left close to the bus stop, after taking a moment to chain them to others. Then had to tell someone that the recycling machine was saying it was full and wait for it to be emptied, since it really was full and opening it myself and moving the contents around a bit didn’t help. Then the cashier gave me 0.05 RON more back, in fact handing back the 0.50 RON coin I had given instead of giving 0.45 RON back, but I again missed the free bus I should be taking, having to run to even catch the next one that’s usable. I guess another one, that also left at that time, would have been better, but I was back just in time for the day’s first match anyway, and dad also gave me back what I had spent on the stuff bought for the cats and for them.
Still on that day, while watching the match, I tried to use the receipt from Carrefour to play the game that was part of their contest at the time, but it didn’t work in Internet Explorer and trying it in Firefox just got me a message stating that the receipt in question had already been used. Did eventually, some time later, manage to use the one from the next purchases made that day, since I went back to Carrefour after the match, taking the paper out as well. Ran most of the way after dropping that off, knowing I had to save every bit of time I could, as I was going to buy three bags of cat litter, and decided to get something for me as well, ending up confused when checking out since I accidentally got six instead of five and the total price was obviously more than I thought it’d be, so the cashier had to explain why that was before I realized it, deciding to leave it like that. Just barely made it back in time for the start of the next match, having 30 minutes to do so but really struggling to carry the 18 kg of cat litter, plus the few other things, having to stop and switch hands very often, since two bags, so 12 kg, had to be carried in one hand.
As for June 20, after waking up I decided pretty much on the spot to go to Auchan again after all, mainly for more yogurt and dental floss, since both were a fair bit cheaper than elsewhere. Meant to take the free bus straight to the farmers’ market after that, but eventually got off here and dropped off the purchases, not wanting to keep the yogurt outside in the heat so long. Then walked to the market, meaning to look for tomatoes first but ending up getting quite a lot of cheap cucumbers instead, and only one kg of cheap tomatoes, plus some rather wilted green onions, lettuce and half a kg of apricots, finding one person selling some that were rather green but otherwise all right for a fair bit less than the others. Was back just as the day’s first match started, and left again after it ended.
The reason for leaving again was to look for apples at the other farmers’ market, and I ran part of the way there. Fortunately, found what I was looking for, but was a bit confused since I knew that there usually are quite a few different prices, the apples being sorted by type, size and how good they still are, and could only see a slightly higher price for one box and a single price label that seemed to be for all the others. Left to have a quick look at the rest of the market then, but then returned and asked the guy whether that price applied to everything and he pointed in the general direction of some of the apples and specified a lower price for those, then looked at the label and turned it around, revealing that the other side listed that lower price. So I first grabbed an apple from the box with those that didn’t look so well, but saw that it was rotten in the middle, so likely almost completely rotten inside, and when he also noticed that he told me to just pick from wherever I want and went to serve someone else with tomatoes. So I left those uglier ones alone and got just over 1.5 kg from those that seemed sort of in between, actually giving him a 0.05 RON coin too, to get to just about exactly the price for that quantity. I’d have actually needed to give him 0.01 RON more to avoid any rounding and one such coin was all I had left, after taking a 0.10 RON one that dad had left lying around before leaving, but we both had a laugh about me wanting to be so fair about it and I didn’t dig that out as well.