Various Thoughts

I waited a week to write about this in the hopes that I could try to come up with something at least partially neutral… but it didn’t really work. I’m still aggravated by it.

Black Magic Sanction is the latest in Kim Harrison’s Rachel Morgan series. It prominently features the Pierce character, the return of Nick, Ivy getting fairly strongly marginalized to the sidelines, and yet another all powerful agency that there is no legal recourse against deciding to fuck with Rachel’s shit. The agency in question is the Magical Ethics and Standards Council mentioned once or twice earlier in the series. They don’t like effective demons wandering this side of the lines and set out to either lobotomize Rachel or lock her away forever in Alcatraz (which turns out to be a perfect prison for magic users since it’s surrounded by salt water).

The problems I had with the novel:

• I despise the Pierce character. Completely.
• Nick already had a solid exit and bringing him back for this type of story feels cheap and repetitive.
• Ivy and Glen? Really?
• Rachel reverting to her pacifistic (and ineffective) ways instead of further embracing her heritage.
• Yet another all-powerful agency that is always in the right.
• Said agency’s blatant, and false-feeling, hypocrisy.

I want to say I’m done with the series… but this had been my favorite Urban Fantasy series for long enough that I’m willing to stick it out for another two books or so. I pretty much gave Hamilton that much leniency with her Anita Blake series following Narcissus in Chains and that hope was rewarded by The Harlequin, Blood Noir, and Skin Trade. ‘Course, it was then shattered by Flirt…. Hopefully this won’t be a full repeat of that situation.

This series is fantastic. It is as if someone mixed The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya with Da Capo and then layered it atop a base of Air. The best parts of those series are combined to form something that easily rivals them all.

The beginning is more akin to Haruhi while the end is more like Da Capo, but the two series’ influences can be felt throughout. However… it does hiccup a bit around two-thirds of the way through, when the Harem elements threaten to overwhelm everything else. Thankfully, it manages to ground itself a few episodes later. A solid series all-in-all.

The After Story, however, is terrible. It’s nothing but a wholly inferior Kimi ga Nozomu Eien.

I feel ripped off. Completely taken advantage of.

Laurell K. Hamilton’s latest Anita Blake novel is a mere 170 pages printed in a gargantuan font. There is no reason this story could not have appeared in one of those paperback short-story collections or even as an E-Book, and every reason it should not be a hardcover. It took little more than an hour to read. Furthermore, the story is basically a (much shorter) re-imagining of one of the earlier books. I forget it’s name after all this time, but it’s the only other one in which she raised an entire cemetery to devour the body of the person who forced her to raise them.

I think I’m done with this series.

Archangel’s Kiss is the second book in Nalini Singh’s Guild Hunter series. The first, Angels’ Blood, was fantastic and unique enough that I ended up reading it somewhere around five times. This one has a distinctly different tone to it, which makes sense as everything was shaken up at the end of Blood. As of now I don’t like it as much as the first as it doesn’t really have any events that can compare to Blood’s climax. The world-building is quite interesting though, and I definitely want to see how the series deals with Elena returning to work as a Hunter.

The second Outcast Season novel, Unknown by Rachel Caine, I did not really like at all. It took some time to properly define the reason(s) though. At first I thought it was due to Cassiel’s speech pattern… but eventually remembered that that was one of the main things I initially liked about the series. No, the problem is two-fold. The first part is how the police/government keeps popping up to force the main characters to do random things despite them having absolutely no connection to the police and/or government. Holy fuck that’s annoying. The second is the effectively obscene reverence that Luis places on the child soldiers. I have never understood why so many people seem to think children are inherent bastions of innocence. Humans are humans, and the human nature to destroy/kill/consume is equally present in all ages.

Eileen Wilks’ recent entry to her World of the Lupi series, Blood Magic, focuses on Lily’s Grandmother’s past. Specifically on an old enemy of hers that has returned to destroy her family. I had some trouble with the first half of this book because my subconscious was constantly screaming “Furries! Furries everywhere!”. I don’t recall having this issue with the other books in the series, so it must be my recent frequent trips to ED. In any case, after the halfway point the plot kicks in and the focus is more on stopping said ancient enemy than how glossy someone’s fur looks. Overall it nicely expands the Lupi world and characters, fleshing out a previously extremely ambiguous deus ex machina character.

This series is essentially a much less serious version of Spiral.

The majority of the episodes are strictly formulaic. The first half tends to be some basic build-up while the second half consists of Neuro explaining how the murder took place. It gets old fast. What keeps the series afloat is Yako’s character development, her evolving relationship with Neuro, and her reactions to the various supernatural events taking place.

It should also be noted that right around episode sixteen or so it gets a touch more serious. Most of the formulaic framework is discarded to focus more on Sai, his origins, and his connection to Yako.

My feelings toward the series are mixed. Beyond the above, it’s fairly difficult to categorize. I originally wanted to describe it as a more childish version of Spiral… and while in many ways that’s true (the suspect face morphs for instance), in others (mainly Sai’s entire existence) it most certainly isn’t. Even the animation style tends to switch back and forth between realistic and cartoonish. It’s watchable for the most part… but I would not waste any large amount of effort to track it down.

The second book in Faith Hunter’s Jane Yellowrock series has a significantly different tone to it. I assume this is the fault of ‘The Guy in the Leather Jacket’ mentioned on the acknowledgment page. Jane’s personality was just fine in the first book. Here… here she’s nearly unrecognizable; a softer side is precisely what she didn’t need. There are more then enough Tsundere personalities floating around the Paranormal Romance and Urban Fantasy landscape as it is.

Ecstasy Unveiled is Larissa Ione’s fourth Demonica series novel. I must admit that I did not expect any more in this series since each of the previous had focused on a single brother and there were only three of those. She decided to focus this one on Lore, the recently revealed brother who had a human mother and, interestingly enough, also has a sister. I must say that I find it odd that Ione created such a detailed world, and then decided to focus her story on a conflux of one-in-a-million occurrences from that universe’s point of view. Why make Seminus demons all male if you were going to introduce a female? Why say that they pretty much never find mates when all four of the brothers do? Anyway, the novel itself sort of feels like a combination of the first and third books and doesn’t really have a unique framework. It’s not a bad read, just nothing particularly new happens in it. The next book in the series, which will focus on Lore’s sister Sin, will be interesting if for no other reason than being the first in the series to be told mainly from a female perspective.

The first playthorugh of the game is now complete, and I don’t like it any more now than I did initially.

The combat is fun and definitely improved over ME1, as is the environment appearance and interactivity… but pretty much everything else is a huge step backward as highlighted by the bullet-points in earlier posts. I don’t see a lot of replay value in this game, as all the ‘correct’ choices are laid out on a silver platter for you. The only real way to choose the ‘wrong’ options is to do so purposely (for roleplaying) or because you were rushing.

Speaking of rushing; I really hate how the same button is used to skip and select dialog. It has the annoying tendency of auto-choosing responses without warning.

Now having recruited my first three party members and the DLC party member; pretty much all of my complaints from the earlier post are still true.

In addition to those, I now have a few more:

• ‘Missions’ feel like MMO instances, and auto-kick you back to the ship once the objective is complete.
• Rather than a fixed/re-balanced inventory system, it has no inventory system at all.
• Different ammo types are now considered powers.
• Enemy shields no longer appear to regenerate, and only a few enemies have shields.
• Interaction with your companions on the Normandy is laughably artificial and staged.
• Achievements are pathetically easy to get.
• There is no longer any sort of bonus for collecting achievements.
• Having to continually travel back to a cleared system to buy more beacons/fuel is a royal pain.
• Getting a companion to ‘Loyal’ status simply requires completing their little personal quest, your paragon/renegade choices don’t seem to matter to them at all.
• Only being able to activate one ‘power’ at a time, regardless of whether it’s Tech or Biotic, is rediculous.

At least the combat is enjoyable.

I’ve just gotten through the tutorial mission and I’m severely disappointed so far.

Cons

• The ‘Sprint’ and ‘Use’ commands use the same key with no apparent way to separate them.
• Character abilities have been drastically reduced/simplified.
• Getting into cover no longer appears to be automatic.
• The GUI is the most horrifically designed piece of shit I have ever had the misfortune of viewing.
  • The mouse wheel does not work on menus, you have to manually scroll everything.
  • The font is huge, even at 1920×1080 resolution.
  • The codex/achievement/quest pop-up is titanic, taking up a full fourth of the screen.
  • Selection menus do not react to double-clicking, you have to select a choice then click the ‘choose’ button.
• The unlocking minigame is more annoying and time-consuming than ME1’s.
• The hacking minigame uses a pinhead-sized font that’s a royal pain to look at.
• Character models seem to be less detailed than ME1.
• Character movement in cut-scenes is stilted.
• Dialog is empty, as if the VAs are talking in a vacuum; there is no sense of interaction.
• The helmets cannot be disabled on the pre-order armor sets (Blood Dragon, Inferno).
• Miranda’s buckteeth are severely distracting.

Pros

• Scripted events so far were fairly exciting.
• Weapons now use ammo, making combat a bit more tactical.
• The hacking minigame is pretty easy and slightly faster than the ME1 minigame.
• That’s about it.

All AI in the game is controlled by Tactics Tables essentially identical to the one available to the player. The main differences being that theirs have more options and are not limited by character or skill level. This post will contain some examples of the more interesting NPC tactics tables (mostly mage varients) the game uses as well as a partial listing of what commands the various numbers equate to in the Tables’ .gda files (for modders who wish to alter them).

First the examples:

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Archer (Dwarf)
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01. Self: Being attacked by melee == Jump to Tactic 6
02. Target: Movement Impaired == Move away
03. Self: Surrounded by at least 2 enemies == Move away
04. Self: Target between short and medium range == Move away
05. Self: Target at short range == Move away
06. Target: Target using magic == Deactivate Suppressing Fire
07. Self: Mana/Stamina < 25% == Deactivate Rapid Shot
08: Target: At least 3 enemies are alive == Scattershot
09. Target: Target using melee == Pinning Shot
10. Enemy: Target using melee == Pinning Shot
11. Target: Target using melee or ranged == Activate Suppressing Fire
12. Self: Mana/Stamina >= 75% == Activate Rapid Shot
13. Target: Has high armor rating == Shattering Shot
14. Target: Has medium armor rating == Shattering Shot
15. Target: Any == Critical Shot

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Mage (Balanced)
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01. Self: Being attacked by melee == Jump to Tactic 5
02. Target: Movement Impaired == Move away
03. Self: Surrounded by at least 2 enemies == Move away
04. Self: Target at short range == Move away
05. Self: Mana/Stamina < 10% == Deactivate Spell Might
06. Self: Mana/Stamina >= 50% == Activate Spell Might
07. Self: HP < 75% == Heal
08. Self: Being attacked by melee or ranged == Activate Stone Armor
09. Self: Being attacked by magic == Spellshield
10. Self: Being attacked by ranged == Heroic Aura
11. Ally: HP < 75% == Heal
12. Self: Mana/Stamina >= 90% == Jump to Tactic 17
13. Target: Any == Petrify
14. Target: Any == Crushing Prison
15. Enemy: 3+ Clustered == Earthquake
16. Enemy: 2+ Clustered == Earthquake
17. Target: Has any buff at any range == Dispel Magic
18. Enemy: Has any buff at any range == Dispel Magic
19. Ally: Being attacked by melee or ranged == Heroic Defense
20. Ally: Being attacked by ranged == Heroic Aura
21. Target: Any == Stonefist
22. Target: Any == Arcane Bolt

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Mage (Blood, Balanced)
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01. Self: Any == Activate Arcane Shield
02. Surrounded by at least 2 enemies == Mind Blast
03. Surrounded by at least 2 enemies == Chain Lightning
04. Self: HP >= 25 == Jump to Tactic 7
05. Ally: Highest HP == Blood Sacrifice
06. Self: Any == Deactivate Blood Magic
07. Self: Being attacked by a melee attack == Jump to Tactic 11
08. Target: Movement Impaired == Move away
09. Self: Surrounded by at least 2 enemies == Move away
10. Self: Target at short range == Move away
11. Self: Mana/Stamina >= 10 == Jump to Tactic 13
12. Self: HP >= 50 == Activate Blood Magic
13. Self: Being attacked by melee or ranged == Misdirection Hex
14. Self: Mana/Stamina >= 75 == Jump to Tactic 18
15. Enemy: 3+ Clustered == Blood Wound
16. Enemy: 3+ Clustered == Blizzard
17. Self: At least 3 enemies are alive == Chain Lightning
18. Target: Any == Blood Wound
19. Enemy: Target using melee or ranged == Misdirection Hex
20. Target: Target at short range == Cone of Cold
21. Target: Any == Vulnerability Hex
22. Target: Any == Winter’s Grasp
23. Target: Any == Arcane Bolt

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Mage (Blood, Nuker)
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01. Self: HP >= 50 == Jump to Tactic 4
02. Ally: Highest HP == Blood Sacrifice
03. Self: Any == Deactivate Blood Magic
04. Self: Being attacked by a melee attack == Jump to Tactic 10
05. Target: Movement Impaired == Move away
06. Self: Surrounded by at least 2 enemies == Move away
07. Self: Target at short range == Move away
08. Self: Mana/Stamina >= 50 == Jump to Tactic 10
09. Self: HP >= 50 == Activate Blood Magic
10. Self: Mana/Stamina >= 75 == Jump to Tactic 14
11. Enemy: 3+ Clustered == Blood Wound
12. Enemy: 3+ Clustered == Tempest
13. Enemy: 3+ Clustered == Fireball
14. Target: Target between medium and long range == Blood Wound
15. Self: At least 3 enemies are alive == Chain Lightning
16. Target: Target between medium and long range == Fireball
17. Target: Target at short range == Shock
18. Target: Target using melee or ranged == Weakness
19. Target: Any == Lightning
20. Target: Any == Arcane Bolt

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Mage (Healer)
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01. Self: Being attacked by melee == Jump to Tactic 5
02. Target: Movement Impaired == Move away
03. Self: Surrounded by at least 2 enemies == Move away
04. Self: Target at short range == Move away
05. Self: Mana/Stamina < 10% == Deactivate Cleansing Aura
06. Self: Mana/Stamina >= 50% == Cleansing Aura
07. Self: Surrounded by at least 2 enemies == Mind Blast
08. Self: At least two allies have curable effects == Mass Rejuvination
09. Self: At least two allies have HP < 50% == Group Heal
10. Self: At least two allies have HP < 50% == Mass Rejuvination
11. Ally: Any == Rejuvination
12. Self: Any == Rejuvination
13. Self: HP < 75% == Heal
14. Ally: HP < 75% == Heal
15. Self: HP < 90% == Regeneration
16. Ally: HP < 90% == Regeneration
17. Ally: HP < 75% == Lifeward
18. Self: Being attacked by magic == Antimagic Ward
19. Ally: Being attacked by magic == Antimagic Ward
20. Self: Any == Glyph of Warding
21. Ally: HP < 50% == Glyph of Warding
22. Target: Any == Arcane Bolt

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Mage (Nuker)
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01. Self: Being attacked by melee == Jump to Tactic 5
02. Target: Movement Impaired == Move away
03. Self: Surrounded by at least 2 enemies == Move away
04. Self: Target at short range == Move away
05. Self: Surrounded by at least 2 enemies == Mind Blast
06. Self: Mana/Stamina >= 75% == Jump to Tactic 11
07. Enemy: 3+ Clustered == Tempest
08. Self: Surrounded by at least 2 enemies == Chain Lightning
09. Enemy: 3+ Clustered == Fireball
10. Target: Any == Petrify
11. Target: Target between medium and long range == Grease
12. Self: At least 3 enemies are alive == Chain Lightning
13. Target: Target between medium and long range == Fireball
14. Target: Target at short range == Shock
15. Target: Any == Lightning
16. Target: Any == Arcane Bolt

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Warrior (Reaver)
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01. Self: Surrounded by no enemies == Deactivate Pain Aura
02. Self: HP >= 90% == Deactivate Blood Frenzy
03. Self: HP < 50% == Activate Blood Frenzy
04. Self: Being attacked by a melee attack == Activate Pain Aura
05. Self: Surrounded by at least 2 enemies == Activate Pain Aura
06. Self: Surrounded by at least 2 enemies == Two-Handed Sweep
07. Self: At least 1 enemy is dead == Devour
08. Target: Has high armor rating == Sunder Armor
09. Target: Has medium armor rating == Sunder Armor
10. Self: Any == Perfect Strike
11. Target: Any == Pommel Strike

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Warrior (Templar)
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01. Target: Target using melee or ranged == Jump to Tactic 3
02. Target: Mana/Stamina >= 90% == Holy Smite
03. Target: HP < 75% == Assault
04. Target: Target at short range == Cleanse Aura
05. Self: Surrounded by at least 2 enemies == Cleanse Aura
06. Self: Mana/Stamina >= 75% == Jump to Tactic 9
07. Self: Any == Perfect Strike
08. Self: Mana/Stamina < 25% == Jump to Tactic 10
09. Self: Any == Activate Precise Striking
10. Target: Any == Holy Smite
11. Target: Any == Shield Bash
12. Target: Any == Assault

Now, for the partial .gda translation:

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Target Type
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1: Self
2: Ally
3: Enemy
7: Most Hated

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Condition
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1  : HP < 100%
2  : HP < 90%
3  : HP < 75%
4  : HP < 50%
5  : HP < 25%
6  : HP < 10%
7  : HP >= 90%
8  : HP >= 75%
9  : HP >= 50%
10 : HP >= 25%
11 : HP >= 10%
12 : Mana/Stamina < 100%
13 : Mana/Stamina < 90%
14 : Mana/Stamina < 75%
15 : Mana/Stamina < 50%
16 : Mana/Stamina < 25%
17 : Mana/Stamina < 10%
18 : Mana/Stamina >= 90%
19 : Mana/Stamina >= 75%
20 : Mana/Stamina >= 50%
21 : Mana/Stamina >= 25%
22 : Mana/Stamina >= 10%
24 : Clustered with same group, 2+
25 : Clustered with same group, 3+
26 : Clustered with same group, 4+
31 : Nearest visible
50 : Highest HP
56 : Has any buff at any range
64 : Polymorphed
66 : Status: Knockdown
67 : Stun
69 : Knockdown
72 : Slowed
74 : Any
79 : Berserk
81 : Target has low armor rating
82 : Target has medium armor rating
83 : Target has high armor rating
101: Being attacked by melee
102: Being attacked by ranged
103: Being attacked by magic
104: Being attacked by melee or ranged
105: Being attacked by melee or magic
106: Being attacked by ranged or magic
107: Target using melee attack
108: Target using ranged attack
109: Target using magic attack
110: Target using melee or ranged
111: Target using melee or magic
112: Target using ranged or magic
113: Most enemies using melee
114: Most enemies using ranged
115: Most enemies using magic
116: Most enemies using melee or ranged
117: Most enemies using melee or magic
118: Most enemies using ranged or magic
119: All enemies using melee
120: All enemies using ranged
121: All enemies using magic
122: All enemies using melee or ranged
123: All enemies using melee or magic
124: All enemies using ranged or magic
125: At least 1 enemies are alive
126: At least 3 enemies are alive
127: At least 5 enemies are alive
128: At least 1 enemies are dead
129: At least 3 enemies are dead
130: At least 5 enemies are dead
131: At least 2 allies are alive
132: At least 3 allies are alive
133: At least 4 allies are alive
134: Stealthed
139: Immobilized
140: Movement impaired
141: Target at short range
142: Target between short and medium range
143: Target between medium and long range
144: Enemy at right flank
145: Enemy at left flank
146: Enemy at back right flank
147: Enemy at back left flank
148: Surrounded by at least 2 enemies
149: Surrounded by at least 3 enemies
150: Surrounded by at least 4 enemies
153: Surrounded by no enemies
157: Self HP < 100%
158: Self HP < 90%
159: Self HP < 75%
160: Self HP < 50%
161: Self HP < 25%
162: Self HP < 10%
163: Self HP >= 90%
164: Self HP >= 75%
165: Self HP >= 50%
166: Self HP >= 25%
167: Self HP >= 10%
168: Self Mana/Stamina < 100%
169: Self Mana/Stamina < 90%
170: Self Mana/Stamina < 75%
171: Self Mana/Stamina < 50%
172: Self Mana/Stamina < 25%
173: Self Mana/Stamina < 10%
174: Self Mana/Stamina >= 90%
175: Self Mana/Stamina >= 75%
176: Self Mana/Stamina >= 50%
177: Self Mana/Stamina >= 25%
178: Self Mana/Stamina >= 10%
179: Target at front
180: Enemy at Large right flank
181: Enemy at Large left flank
182: Enemy at Large back right flank
183: Enemy at Large back left flank
188: Enemy at Dragon right flank
189: Enemy at Dragon left flank
190: Enemy at Dragon back right flank
191: Enemy at Dragon back left flank
192: Enemy at Dragon close front
193: Enemy at Dragon back
194: Enemy at Dragon far front
195: At least 2 enemies at Dragon back
196: At least 3 enemies at Dragon back
197: At least 4 enemies at Dragon back
198: At least 2 enemies at Dragon close front
199: At least 3 enemies at Dragon close front
200: At least 2 enemies at Dragon far front
201: At least 3 enemies at Dragon far front
202: At least 4 enemies at Dragon far front
203: At least 2 allies have HP < 50%
204: At least 3 allies have HP < 50%
205: At least 4 allies have HP < 50%
206: At least 2 allies have curable effects
207: At least 3 allies have curable effects
208: At least 4 allies have curable effects

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Command
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2 : Attack
3 : Wait
4 : Use Ability
5 : Activate Mode
6 : Deactivate Mode
9 : Move
10: Jump to Tactic
14: Fly/Turn

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Wait Subcommands
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1: Wait with cooldown

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Move Subcommands
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6: Move away from enemy
7: Move away a short distance

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Fly/Turn Subcommands
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1: Turn toward Hated Enemy
7: Fly to waypoint nearest Hated Enemy