Cav's Place

At the start of the 2009 season I offered some suggestions for the future of the FIA Formula One championship. I still fully stand by what I wrote then, but there have been certain rule changes and other new developments over these past two seasons, so I’ll take the end of the 2010 season as an opportunity to make some appropriate additions to those earlier suggestions of mine.

I’ll certainly admit that the change in the number of points awarded did make for a very interesting season all the way to the end, with four drivers still having chances to win the title at the start of the last race and the one who was third at that moment ending up victorious. This was most likely the best change made during these last two seasons, but unfortunately it still only improved something other than what really happens on the track, because the races themselves haven’t been particularly more exciting than usual, though there have certainly been several notable moments, some of them even without a wet track.
With that in mind, I will reiterate my desire for regulations that would allow more aggresive driving, materials and construction methods that would make the cars capable of withstanding at least some contact without risk of noticeable damage, more safety car periods, less yellow flags and, quite frankly, less safe tracks, in the sense of making driving mistakes more likely to result in retirements. In fact, though this may sound strange to some, I’m also quite worried about the very high reliability of the cars, as there have been quite few retirements in most races this season, culminating with a single one in the Brazilian Grand Prix. Granted that having many cars on track can make for interesting racing, and the Brazilian Grand Prix certainly was that, but it also often makes the results quite predictable and, perhaps more worryingly, is a sign that constructors are no longer pushing to the limit, because it’s extremely unlikely to have such a high reliability if your designs would push the limits all the time.

But that is the problem, isn’t it? In this effort to reduce costs, development is being stifled in every way possible. Engines can’t really be improved until 2013, though a true revolution is expected for that season, KERS has been abandoned for the 2010 season, testing during the season is also now forbidden… Sure, a few teams keep finding ways to innovate even under such circumstances, but they’re certainly doing it in spite of the regulations. And that’s awfully sad and just plain wrong, because the regulations of a sport such as this should do their best to stimulate and reward development and innovation instead of discouraging and even completely banning those things!
My opinion regarding reducing costs in this sport remains the same one I have expressed in my previous post on this issue, and that also goes for my suggestions of ways in which the poorer teams could be helped to continue racing despite being unable to afford raising themselves to the level of their wealthier competitors, so I won’t repeat myself. Suffice to say that I find the current efforts at best misguided, and often completely detrimental both to the sport itself and to any potential “real world” benefits it may end up having.

The refueling ban is something I’m quite uncertain about. It greatly reduces the impact of strategy and, though such a thing was theoretically expected to make racing more spectacular, tends to be one more element that turns the “new” Formula One into something more similar to endurance racing, which is certainly not what it should be. It also has the effect of making pretty much all drivers focus on passing through the pits a single time during a race, for the required tire change, and otherwise simply manage their car and their tires instead of pushing nearly all the time, in a series of sprints separated by two, three or occasionally even more pit stops, which really goes against the idea of Formula One being the pinnacle of motor racing. It’s no longer just a matter of being the fastest, but more of being the most careful, looking after your fuel consumption, your tire degradation, your engine, your gearbox and who knows how many other factors…
I’d still really want to see an actual limit imposed on the total amount of fuel a car may use during a race, and I saw a news piece once stating that it will happen starting in the 2013 season, but see no reason to ban refueling during the race as long as that total is not exceeded. I’ll also admit that limiting the number of engines and gearboxes a car may use during a season is a good thing, but wish someone would come up with a way to do that without forcing drivers to look after those parts during each race, for example by building them in such a way as to allow repairs, so the mechanics would be able to solve any problems noticed after one race that could compromise the reliability during the next one.
But what bothers me the most out of all these elements that seem to change the nature of Formula One racing is the apparently too high durability of the tires, proven by several drivers who have managed to drive almost entire race distances on a single set, only using the other compound for as little as a single lap, and even that only because the regulations required them to. This only encourages careful and safe driving even more, making drivers attack far less or even not at all, which once again goes against everything Formula One should be about, so I suggest making significantly softer tires, which should provide more grip while also making it clear for the drivers that they’re unlikely to make it to the end of the race even if using just two sets of tires, much less a single one. This should theoretically make them attack more, knowing that their tires won’t last long enough even if they don’t… Or they could simply be required to stop at least twice while preserving the current tire durability, though that would once again reduce the impact of strategy.

Finally, I really don’t want to see night races anymore, for the simple reason that motor racing is by definition a very wasteful sport and that waste needs to be reduced, such as by increasing fuel efficiency and building engines in such a way as to allow repairs instead of requiring replacement. Yet the insane amount of electricity required to provide the appropriate illumination for a night race does nothing but add to that waste, and that simply must not be allowed to happen. So forget about trying to have races at “reasonable hours” in Europe or any other marketing interests that would appear to justify night races and just focus on eliminating a completely unnecessary addition to the already huge environmental footprint this sport has!

Elena P. should have turned 30 exactly one week ago and, as I remember all too well when we were talking about her health problems and she said she knows all too well what she’ll die of and would therefore rather live her life as she wants to and die at 30 instead of doing what her doctor wants and just struggle along until 50, I have to wonder whether she’s still alive… This, of course, comes on top of generally wondering how she is.
I just did a search and it seems I only mentioned her a few times on this blog, the first being only about a year and a half ago. I did find myself thinking of her more frequently since around that time, so it makes sense to mention her since then, but I’m quite surprised that I never did before. Whether she really was the only best friend I ever had or just pretended to be my friend far better than anyone else ever did, she remains the second most important person that ever was in my life, despite vanishing after so little time, so I should perhaps post that story in full someday as well.
Until then… I’m thinking of you and wish you all the best, wherever you are. And thank you for those two months, nine years ago. Mainly if it was real, but perhaps even if it wasn’t. The real help you offered during those two months was likely negated by the suffering caused afterwards, but since I didn’t actually fall in love with you I’m left mainly with fond memories instead of heartache. Perhaps more importantly, I’m left with a clear representation of what I want, and likely what I need, from a best friend and with the hope that someday I may find someone to have something like that with again.

Went to that bookstore I mentioned on my own yesterday… I spent about 30 minutes looking around there, though it’s certainly not a large place and I didn’t find anything particularly interesting anyway. But the problem was getting there and back, as a few things that happened along the way made me feel awfully crappy. Yes, this concrete jungle gets me just about every time.
The first problem was caused by me taking some more newspapers from the pile in the kitchen to recycle and the nearest paper bin being, of course, full. The last time that happened I kept going along my way and dumped them a pretty long way off, where I found another bin that wasn’t quite as full, but doing the same didn’t seem likely yesterday since the next such bin I knew of along my route was a long way off and I didn’t need added complications when I wasn’t really sure I knew how to reach my destination anyway. So I just left them on the bin, which meant that I kept worrying that the wind carried them all over the place, possibly right on somebody’s windshield as they were driving past. Should have left them on the ground or at the very least placed the one magazine that was among them on top, since it was less likely to be carried away by wind, but got all confused and panicked because there were people around and just knew that I had to get the fuck out of there…
Then there was the usual confusion with a three-way stoplight that I can never remember is three-way despite passing it whenever I go in that general direction, so I see the cars stopping, wonder why does the pedestrian light stay red, usually see others rushing forward and follow suit, only to be caught right in the middle of the road by the light for the cars coming from the other way and turning going green. The fact that there are about ten seconds between one light going red and the other going green certainly doesn’t help, since I see cars stopped in all directions and assume something’s wrong with the stoplight. Really barely dodged a car there once, and yesterday wasn’t much better. As soon as the cars stopped, two girls that were also waiting to cross rushed forward, so me and two men who were also there sort of glanced at the light, the girls and each other, then shrugged and went forward as well, only to of course find ourselves sort of deer in headlights as the other light went green and the traffic swerved our way while we were in the middle of the road. First came a scooter and, since my brain was still trying to figure out what the fuck was happening, I’m not even sure whether I stopped to let it pass in front of me or it went around behind me, but the car coming right after it appeared to make a point of trying to run right into me, slamming on the brakes and honking loudly. Since by then I was pretty much jumping forward, I’m not even sure it could have hit me without ending up in the bushes from the area that separates the two ways, but the driver obviously wanted to make a point. (Then again, he certainly would have hit the other two men, who were slower than me.) Really wonder how many get hit there, because I’m not sure there was ever a time when that stoplight didn’t confuse me like this…
And then there was the way back, when I decided to take the subway, not wanting to go through it again, and ended up taking the wrong one. I assumed I was at another station for some reason and thought it didn’t really matter which way I went since I had to switch anyway and this line crosses the other in two points, but preferred one direction and took it… Only to check the map once inside the train and see that I was at the first such crossing point and got it all wrong… If you care for the details, you can see what the problem was on the map: I was at Piata Unirii and thought for some reason that I was at Universitate, though it was obvious I wasn’t, since there were multiple lines and at Universitate there’s just one. So instead of taking M1 or M3 and going left, as shown on that map, I ended up taking M2 to Piata Victoriei, then switching there to take M1 to my stop. All I can say is that at least I didn’t take M2 the other way, which would have resulted in me needing to get out and go back as soon as I could.

I’m writing this review about a game I played some five years ago, if not more, so the details are understandably far less clear than they should be. Yet the simple fact that I thought to review it and still remember enough to be able to do so after all this time should tell you something of the kind of impression it left on me. Admittedly, at least one of its bad points is part of that lasting impression, but the good far outweighs the bad and there’s at least one particular good part of this game that I’d like to see implemented in a similar or better fashion in many more others. But that unfortunately seems less and less likely, considering the direction the gaming industry is speeding into…

As usual, I’ll start with the game mechanics and say that what impressed me the most in this game was the crafting system. It was very fun to play around with, pretty complex but at the same time rather easy to understand. Back when I played it, which was already four or five years after its release, I started giving it as an example of how a crafting system built into a game should be like, even though of course it also had its flaws. Unfortunately, I have found myself doing the same thing a few times even more recently, because I can’t think of a newer game that’s better in that aspect, so do let me know if you know of one…
Even those flaws I mentioned had less to do with the system itself and more with the available components. Especially towards the end of the game, when you gain access to materials like mithril and meteorite, you should be able to craft some really powerful magical equipment, assuming you have an equally powerful magic user in your party. Such equipment could perhaps require some special blueprints, as long as you had a way to obtain them, but you don’t really have that option. You can find ways to put some pretty useful spells on certain pieces of equipment, but none of it can hold really complex ones and in fact there aren’t all that many basic spells to begin with.

Which leads me to another complaint, though this is probably more a matter of preference: While you wouldn’t manage to get through the game without magic, it often has a support role, physical prowess being more important. Needless to say, that didn’t go too well with me, seeing as I enjoy playing magic users almost exclusively. I think I eventually managed to turn Zak into a pretty powerful magic user who could still hold his own in combat up to a point, but it took a whole lot of effort and he still died way too quickly if the enemies took a real interest in him.
Then again, your characters dying very often and very quickly is something you’ll really get used to during this game, because the difficulty is quite punishing. And that’s on “novice”, because there’s basically no way to play the game on “normal”. They really should have called the difficulty settings “hard” and “impossible”, because the enemies you’ll end up facing are usually at least a match for your party members, and often even stronger, and there usually are far more of them than there are of you. In addition, on the “normal” difficulty level the amount of experience you receive for killing a certain type of enemy decreases the more enemies of that type you kill, so not only are the enemies more powerful but you’ll also be far weaker than you’d be if playing on “novice”, which means that soon enough you’ll bump into enemies who’ll crush you like a bug without you being able to even scratch them.

Yet the combat does work quite well for the most part. It’s nice to see that hurting an enemy’s arms or legs has the effect you’d expect it to have on their attack or movement speed, that a properly chosen and timed spell can completely alter the fate of battle, or that a solid blow to the head or a good backstab can take down even powerful enemies right away. Of course, the enemies can also do all those things to you, so you need to be very careful every step of the way, especially since here you won’t see enemies standing around while you damage them, as it happens even in some really new games, but any who notice you will immediately react and also alert all those who are in sight or hearing range to come to their aid.
However, these realistic reactions, while certainly very welcome, make sneaking around, which is something you’ll often find yourself doing, extremely difficult and at times completely impossible, especially since you can’t run away from enemies. Fortunately, there is a spell called “Fireworks” that, if used right, will usually just draw a single enemy to a location of your choice, so you’ll be able to take care of them. But if that fails you’re in real trouble, because your stamina runs out extremely quickly while your enemies never tire… I would have appreciated the realism to be added in that area as well!

Thankfully, the character development is flexible enough to allow you to respond to these challenges, at least if you play on “novice”, because it uses a system I’m very fond of and unfortunately rarely see: Instead of gaining levels and skill points, you directly spend the experience you earn to improve your characters, and the amount of available experience is pretty much the only thing limiting your options, without things such as class or specialization forcing you to stick to a certain path, though of course you’ll need to focus on just a few skills if you want to become really good at them, especially since gaining a rank in a skill doubles the cost of all the others.
I could also say that the inventory management, or more exactly the lack of it, is another great help, considering how many things you’ll be picking up and, in fact, how many things you’ll need to pick up and carry around if you want to craft really good equipment and advance in the game. That’s because only the weight of your actual equipment matters, while everything else you have in inventory is constantly treated as if stored elsewhere, somewhat like it is in Gothic. Unfortunately, unlike in Gothic, you can’t access your inventory unless you’re at a shop! So if you just found something interesting that you’d like to use or if your equipment is close to being destroyed, you need to rush back to a shop to do so. And sometimes there’s no shop for you to rush back to…

As a side note, considering when it was released, I should really mention that this game looked absolutely stunning. It wasn’t just the quality of the art, but also the style chosen, which appeared to fit just right with the atmosphere. You have to take into account that we’re talking about a game that’s about a decade old, so it had to make do with the hardware capabilities of the time, and that it did wonderfully, making all the different areas you’ll end up exploring come to life as well as could be expected, and sometimes even better than that.

But I mentioned one bad part of this game that made a lasting impression on me and I should now say what it was, because I wasn’t talking about the difficulty. The problem was the story, or more exactly the end of it. There were some pretty nice moments in between, but the main story left a lot to be desired and if you didn’t figure out the “big surprise” saved for the end of the game about halfway through it there must be something seriously wrong with your reasoning abilities. Not to mention that the final fight itself is a major disappointment, as is what happens just before it…

As always, I tend to focus on the negative, making the games I review seem noticeably worse than I actually think they are… You may read what I wrote above and say this is probably not something you’d want to play, but if you enjoy RPGs I really think you should, assuming it would somehow still work with newer operating systems and drivers. In short, I could say that I see it as a great crafting system and a good character development system packaged in a rather pretty but also really challenging game that was probably ahead of its time, so if any of that seems interesting to you, why not try tracking it down?

Got a brief little hug yesterday, when I met Andreea. Was too surprised and feeling too crappy to even get to return it, but it still counts. Since the last one I got was on June 8th, 2007, from Jen, it means a period without hugs of no less than 1138 days, or 1138 days and about two and a half or three hours, to be even more exact, finally came to an end… It’s really sad when a little hug is such a major event, but it really is, so what can I do?
But that wasn’t yesterday’s only notable event. The other was that she took me to a few bookstores she knew of and I recognized one of them. The furniture was slightly different and the kind of books they were selling had changed quite significantly, but I was sure I knew the place the moment I walked in and a few seconds later I also realized how I knew it: Andra had discovered it back in the beginning, when she was visiting me here and dragging me along as she was exploring the city. I even recalled something bought from there, as well as exactly where something else I was interested in but decided against buying at the time was placed. Of course, it’s been some eight years and I said the kind of books they were selling had changed significantly, so what I remembered had nothing to do with what I saw, but I was flooded by memories nevertheless…
Now I guess I’ll have to figure out exactly where that place is, since Andreea got a bit lost at some point and I just tagged along until she could figure out where we were again, because we were in an area I had never been to since I got thrown back here and certainly didn’t have the slightest clue where we were myself. That means I can’t even say I’ll get there by starting from the last place I know how to get to and then going the same way we went yesterday… But I’ll figure it out somehow and then go there myself, even if just for the memories… Would sure be a sight if I’ll end up hunched in a corner and whimpering, but who the fuck cares…

Otherwise, I noticed a few days ago that my old blog was working again and sent Jen an e-mail asking how did that happen, after not working for a month and a half and forcing me to get my own site, and what’s up with the accounts, since I meant to delete everything and just put up a redirect to the new address but found myself unable to log on. Also took the opportunity to ask what does she know and is hiding from me, though of course I didn’t expect any reply seeing as she has been ignoring me completely for quite a few months.
Well, I did get a reply. Actually, she sent me two e-mails. One was a forward with some new account information, which I should use to do what I meant to do, and the other looked like an actual reply to my message. Needless to say, I’m too much of a coward to read that reply, just in case she answered my other question as well and she’ll confirm what I’m fearing, which is nothing short of the worst thing that could possibly happen… I’m only checking my e-mail late at night anyway, after eating, to make sure I’ll at least be able to eat that day, and don’t even feel up to using that new account information to put up that simple page instead of the old blog.