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Feb. 2nd, 2019
Fooled Me!
Feb. 2nd, 2019 10:38 amIn setting up a game of Civ VI, you're allowed to choose (among other things) the general configuration of the map. The default is Continents, with two large continents and a scattering of islands. Other options include Pangaea, Archipelago, and Inland Sea (which should be self-explanatory), plus Fractal (which has landforms generated pretty much at random) and Shuffle (the description of which is a coy "Who knows?").
For my current game, I decided to try a Fractal map. (All of my previous games have been on Continents.) I'm playing as Cleopatra. Montezuma is to my southeast, limiting expansion there. I've pushed as far to the northeast as I can without risking war with Seondeok of Korea. There are a couple of city-states to my west, so I have a bit more room to maneuver there, but they block off the further west from my Scouts. I spotted a narrow isthmus which would allow me access to those areas by sea, once I acquired Shipbuilding, and I planted a colony there, on a one-tile-wide part of the isthmus. Ho ho, now I can pass between the seas on either side! I build a couple of Galleys and set sail.
Both of them are inland seas, dammit.
For my current game, I decided to try a Fractal map. (All of my previous games have been on Continents.) I'm playing as Cleopatra. Montezuma is to my southeast, limiting expansion there. I've pushed as far to the northeast as I can without risking war with Seondeok of Korea. There are a couple of city-states to my west, so I have a bit more room to maneuver there, but they block off the further west from my Scouts. I spotted a narrow isthmus which would allow me access to those areas by sea, once I acquired Shipbuilding, and I planted a colony there, on a one-tile-wide part of the isthmus. Ho ho, now I can pass between the seas on either side! I build a couple of Galleys and set sail.
Both of them are inland seas, dammit.
Ted Chiang
Feb. 2nd, 2019 02:24 pmOne of the books I bought on New Year's Eve was a collection of stories by Ted Chiang, "Stories of Your Life and Others". I'd read and enjoyed his "The Life Cycle of Software Objects", which won a Hugo a few years back, and I've seen "Arrival", which was based on "Story of Your Life", in this collection. I had high expectations for this book, and so far they've been met. I've read three stories, and am in the midst of "Story of Your Life". "Tower of Babylon", about what the builders found at the top; "Understand", about two hyperintelligent men, their responses to the growth of their intellects, and the consequences of their meeting (I kept thinking about "Flowers for Algernon", but that is not this story); "Division by Zero", about a brilliant mathematician who makes a soul-shattering discovery; "Story of Your Life", about a linguist's attempt to communicate with some very different aliens... Sensawunda out the wazoo, and discussion of some of my favorite subjects without condescension or stereotyping. Wonderful stories, so far.
