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turgidtangentimagines · 7 years ago

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Fuckin. Sollux talking to a human about code. bonding over java or c# or something.

I made this into a semi-pesterlog situation because I was thinking back to a time sollux could talk to humans and, well, see code and alll the way back on the meteor seemed the most plausible and probable to me. Kinda came out a little less bond-y and a little more first-meeting sort of thing but i think it’s still pretty solid.

Also- I know nothing of those two code languages- I am most familiar with javascript. And then there’s this whole sburb situation… soo… yeah, bare with me.

If you just move that function here… and make that server call there… then you might just be able to shrink down this massive ui system. You’ve just. You gotta get this game running on your phone. You have to stop being so tethered to the portal system just to be sure your client player won’t die on you.

There’s just been too much of that recently, death. And simultaneously the lack of death. This game- it’s just too strange. Between John’s ordeal with Terezi and the Davesprite-dead-timeline situation, you’ve been a little on edge to say the least. Between these trolls and this game, death could be lurking around any corner. Hopefully, with any luck at all, this app would keep it off your friends’ doorsteps.

With a jolt- pesterchum pings with the presumption that you’ll answer its chattery call. All it really does is make you aware of the trail of semi-colons you’ve left on the end of your code, nulling your command- and annoying you to no end. Finicky, finicky language. Being this drowsy isn’t exactly the most conducive thing to coding, but maybe you can get some muse flowing by trolling one of these dorks back. They never really seemed to expect that from you- the push-back. Your friends, even back on earth, seemed to humor and then evade their jests, your technique was simply to ignore their trolling till they were idle an ample about of time, say your piece, and- goddamnit.

–[[TA] TwinArmageddons began trolling [PC] PesterChum at 04:12]–

TA: hey. a22hole. what the hell are you doiing?

A quick Alt + tab and you’re back to your code. It’s important that you stay on- goddamned pop-up notifications.

TA: ye2. we’re talkiing. iit'2 happeniing.

TA: ii’ll a2k agaiin.

TA: what’re you doiing, a22hole?

Ctrl + Alt+ Delete, annd… he’s gone again. Guess you’re just going to have to lay off pestering your chums for a- oh god-with the phone-and the vibrating on ya leg-

PC: What do you want, I’m very busy.

TA: obviiou2ly.

TA: ii repeat a 2econd tiime:

TA: what are you doiing?

You put the phone down a moment to think. Only one other troll thus far had been so annoyingly hard to ignore, and even then it was because of your own need to communicate and not the fault of any of the technology around you. There were a few ways this could be happening, most of which are coincidental, but if you humor this troll for a few moments perhaps they’ll show their cards long enough to discern if there are any flaws in your impenetrable wall of troll ignorance. That, or, you’re so tired that that wall crumbled the 6 hours ago when you were supposed to be asleep. Whatever. You were coding on fumes anyway. Might as well look at something that’s not the editor for a min- aannd that dude isn’t shutting up.

TA: 2eriiou2ly, ii’m 2en2iing all 2ort2 of doomed tiimeliine2 waftiing through the viiewport2 and the wor2t ii2 comiing from none other than your2elf.

TA: miight a2 well 2ee what 2hiit your 2peciie2 ii2 gettiing iinto.

PC: Alright.

PC: I’m reconfiguring a copy of the game to allow me to run my client’s client editor on my phone in real time while continuing to run the game from my computer for my server player.

PC: Easy-peasy, lemon-squeezy.

PC: Except not.

PC: This is tedious.

PC: It’s like it was coded with the game equivalent of Dreamweaver.

A lapse in your conversation allows you a chance to delete all of those semicolons. Just how out of it were you, you must’ve added like 100 lines worth- ping!

TA: oh my gog. you’re fuckiing iin2ane.

PC: ???

TA: what the 2hiit do you thiink you’re doiing- diid you even code your game?

TA: no, you diidn’t.

TA: you’re readiing off gog know2 what developed by one of your iinferiior human grub de2iigner2 who couldn’t code the wiide 2iide of a moobea2t contaiinment faciiliity.

TA: 2top fuckiing wiith your game'2 code before you doom a miilliion tiimeliine2 iin the mo2t excruciiatiing way po22iible.

Okay, there was a lot you could take in life, insults normally being one of them. But an insult to your skill is simply a challenge in your book.

PC: I can read it.

PC: I can code it.

PC: And it’s happening.

You press the power button on your phone, but it just glitches right back to the conversation as soon as ya do. Fuckin glitchy ass last-gen smartphones, hardly able to run pesterchum anyway.

TA: okay look, ii diidn’t even want two troll you 2hiit2- ii ju2t wanted two leave you alone becau2e ii thought your 2peciie2 wa2 2tupiid enough two fiizzle out by iit2elf- but thii2 cro22e2 a liine.

TA: ii’ve 2uddenly caught a ca2e of giiviing a fuck.

Yeesh, this guy crosses all sort of lines. First with the technological illiteracy comments and now with the whole slandering your specie- man this guy gets wordy when he’s spooked.

TA: the game2 code ii2 not two be tampered wiith, iif runniing iit off of tho2e two 2hiitty human game grub2 de2troyed your uniiver2e- what the hell do you thiink you’d do ju2t fuckiing wiith iit for conveniience?

PC: Gain any semblance of agency I have left in this hellscape of a game.

PC: Keep my friends alive, and not be bogged down by all the shit of the universe while doing it.

PC: etc.

TA: …

TA: look.

TA: ii don’t know what iit ii2 about the code you’re wriitiing but ii know for a fact that nothiing good come2 of iit waay more than anythiing you’re actually tryiing two do doe2.

TA: ju2t. plea2e. don’t run that code.

TA: you’ll do more harm than good

TA: then your friiend2 wiill diie

TA: and then on top of that KK wiill nag me about iit.

At this point, this dude’s just becoming a drag. A pause and you come to realize that you are waay too tired to comb through this heap of code. You need some sort of break, a reprieve from thinking like a computer and a moment to think like a human being. Preferably a human who wasn’t coding or talking right now and slept for the next week. You gotta get this guy off your back, and only one way comes to your sleep-deprived mind.

PC: Fine then.

TA: what.

TA: really?

TA: you’re giiviing iit up that ea2iily?

PC: No.

TA: waiit. then what’re you doiing?

PC: Look.

PC: Dude.

PC: It’s waaay past midnight.

PC: I’m going to level with you:

PC: My code right now?

PC: Probably not my best work.

TA: no 2hiit.

PC: Not done.

PC: So this is either going one of two ways: you withdraw from this pestering- by force or by your own will- and I test my code like any developer would. Or- you actually help me, we test it, and I go the fuck to sleep.

PC: Your call.

You hold the phone like you’re waiting for a reply when in actuality you’ve closed your eyes and can feel the sweet sweet relief of no blue light forcing your eyes into a semi-alert hell. Your phone almost jiggles out of your hand with enough force to actually wake you up a little bit. You reluctantly open your eyes to see more dijon text in dual i’s.

TA: iin a biilliion alternate uniiver2e2 ii 2aiid fuck iit and let you run a code that'2 bugged two 2hiit whiile your 2e22iion cra2hed and burned.

TA: two be hone2t, kiinda wii2hiing thii2 wa2 one of tho2e, becau2e you’ve been nothiing but a paiin about liittle more than an alpha te2t for an acce22ory app.

TA: that you don’t even fuckiing need.

TA: you’re ju2t codiing for the 2hiit of iit.

TA: ju2t. what the hell.

PC: Well?

PC: What’s your answer troll dude, gonna help me debug this shit?

PC: Hack a game that’s fucked up our lives for just the slightest bit more control over it?

PC: Eh?

PC:…

PC: Yeah, that’s about as enticing as I can make that sound right now.

TA:…

TA: you know what?

TA: 2ure. you iin2ane apebea2t.

PC:…

PC: Call me y/n.

TA:…

TA: Sollux.

TA: Sollux Captor.

#sollux captor #sollux #homestuck sollux #homestuck imagines #imagine homestuck #homestuck #homestuck scenarios #god man that was my first fic-esque thing in almost a decade #I might've done it in pester-format. which i hate. but still.#I kinda like this au i think #I might just keep it

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williamjworld · 6 years ago

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Project Brief- Typography part 2

University of Cumbria BA(Hons) Graphic Design/Illustration Year 1 Module: GRAP4070 Communicating Ideas

Project 4 Letter Exchange

“A typographic hierarchy expresses an organisational system for content, emphasising some data and diminishing others. A hierarchy helps readers scan a text, knowing where to enter and exit and how to pick and choose among its offerings. Each level of the hierarchy should be signalled by one or more cues,

applied consistently aross a body of text.” Ellen Lupton, Thinking with Type

Brief

This brief is about extending the typographic knowledge and skills you started to look at two weeks ago into a larger piece of design using more information. You will be creating a typographic image and then combining this with a body of information which needs to be organised using a hier- archical system. You are tasked with producing a poster for a conference on creative typography called Letter Exchange.

Required elements

Your poster must contain: • an image/illustration made from type/lettering, which captures the idea of typography as an exciting, creative, experiemental endeavour • the full text about the conference (see document Letter Exchange Copyon Blackboard) • the poster must be A2 in size • you may use full colour • you cannot include any other kind of images

The brief divides into two parts:

1 The typographic image

We want to see lots of exploration and experimental play here, to develop an engaging and exciting typographic image which makes the audience regard typography as a creative artform and the conference as an inspi- rational event they would like to participate in. This can be made through any medium. Consider analogue materials and processes as well as digital methods: paints, inks, stencils, playing with the scanner and photocopier, projection, cutting, tearing, folding, sticking, collage, monoprinting, mixed media...If you can imagine doing it, then try doing it. This should be FUN! The only criteria is that it should be made from letterforms (which don’t necessarily have to spell anything). There will be studio workshop sessions to help you to develop your image and you may use any of the workshops for which you have had an induction eg. printmaking, metal, photography,wood etc. But don’t spend longer than the first week doing this.

2 The layout and typographic treatment of the information

Once you have your typographic image/illustration you need to turn your attention to the composition and typographic treatment of the information. How are you going to successfully compose the image and text content together? Remember that the overall layout must be well structured

and lead your reader’s eye through the information. As in your previous project, there are headlines, sub-heads, intros, main body text etc. There should be an evident typographic hierarchy to distinguish these levels of content. How do you use the elements within the type family to do this? (size/weight/u&lc/italics and other variants etc.) We want to see lots of control and attention to detail here. Initial layouts and compositions need to be considered as thumbnail sketches on paper before you start working on screen.

There are no restrictions on the number of typefaces, weights or colours you can use, but be discriminating about how many variants you really need. Is working within one type family, or a limited number of typefaces, going to produce a more coherent piece of design than throwing every- thing at it?

Assessment Criteria

1 IDENTIFY – Demonstrate an understanding of the need to identify appropriate research/source material in order to progress ideas/ concepts. 2 STRATEGIES – Select approaches and strategies that communicateideas and intentions to others in an effective manner. 3 SEQUENTIAL – Understand how to visualise ideas/concepts sequentially and selectively in order to arrive at creative solutions. 4 SORT – Identify an evaluative ability in shifting/sorting/testing/examin- ing in order to further develop ideas and concepts. 5 APPROPRIATE – Demonstrate the appropriateness of a design solu- tion to the demands of a set brief.

Deadline

Thursday 14th March 2019

My tutor Tony and Rhiannon, show some of there own of typography, to get some idea of what me and my group could do with our own typography.

There is also some of artwork from college where I did some typography in one or two projects and my Pinterest board with typography ideas.

https://www.pinterest.co.uk/willsjacksonroc/typography-style/

This has given me ideas to do a poster design with what I asked to do in this project with some inspiration from other typography artists:

Letter Exchange

A design festival for people who use type

7th – 9th June 2019 Cinema Teatro Sarti Via Scaletta 10 FaenzaItaly

Letter Exchange is the first international conference in Italy dedicated solely to contemporary typography, with talks, workshops and tours focusing on where typography is today and where its future may lie. The conference will be held in Faenza, a medieval city in the north-east of Italy, home to an ancient tradition of design and craftsmanship.

Conference Speakers

Sarah Hyndman A British graphic designer, writer and public speaker, Sarah Hyndman asks lots of questions, has become an accidental specialist in multi-sensory typography and is known for her interest in the psychology of type. She is the founder of the innovative Type Tasting studio; driven by her passion for changing the way we think and talk about typography. Sarah is also known for her thought-provoking and highly entertaining typography workshops, events and books including Why Fonts Matter and the type dating card game What's Your Type?

Laura Meseguer A freelance graphic and type designer from Barcelona, Laura Meseguera’s studio works for international and domestic clients but also in self-initiated projects. As a typographer and type designer, she has specialized in all sorts of projects involving custom lettering and type design, for branding and publishing. Her design approach is to create unique solutions for every assignment, based on the concept, the content and the context, always in close collaboration with art directors and designers. She designs and produces typefaces which are distributed through her own digital type foundry Type-Ø-Tones, that is also a member of TypeNetwork. She is the author of TypoMag: Typography in Magazines, published by IndexBook, and co-author of the book “Cómo crear tipografías. Del boceto a la pantalla”, published in Spanish by Tipo, and translated into Polish, Portuguese, English and soon in Chinese. She is a board member of the ATypI since 2017. She also teaches type design and typography in different schools. Laura’swork has been featured in several publications and exhibitions such as Graphic Design Now. She also holds awards from the ADG-FAD (The Art Directors & Graphic Designers Association, Spain), and TDCs for her typefaces Rumba Lalola and Qandus.

Ken Barber Ken Barber is the typeface design director and chief lettering officer at font foundry and design studio, HouseIndustries. His work is in the permanent collection of the Smithsonian Institution’s Cooper-Hewitt National Design Museum and the Henry Ford Museum of American Innovation. Ken has also been honored by the New York Type Directors Club, Association Typographique Internationale, and Design Museum London. In addition to teaching at The Cooper Union in New York City, he regularly leads workshops on the practice of hand-lettering. Ken co-authored House Industries: The Process is the Inspiration (Watson-Guptill, 2017) with Andy Cruz and Rich Roat.

Lance Wyman Design legend Lance Wyman creates graphic systems for cities, events, institutions, and transit systems. Fifty years ago, his groundbreaking identity for the 1968 Mexico Olympics helped establish the modern practice of environmental design. He is a member of AGI, an SEGD Fellow and a recipient of the AIGA Medal. There are three major books published on his work.

Veronika Burian and José Scaglione Choosing and using typefaces has become increasingly complex in recent years. The different kinds of licenses, the large number of fonts on offer, and the variety of pricing structure and language support on the market result in ascenario where type users can get easily lost. In this presentation TypeTogether’s founders, Veronika Burian andJosé Scaglione will discuss how to curate high quality, flexible, and scalable typeface libraries. Learn how to go about selecting and combining fonts, how to judge language support capabilities in an increasingly global market, and how to use typeface customization as a powerful graphic design tool.

Toshi Omagari Toshi Omagari is a type designer at Monotype. He studied typography and typeface design at Musashino Art University in Tokyo, where he graduated in 2008, and went on to obtain an MA in typeface design at University of Reading in 2011. Since he joined Monotype in UK, he has released a number of revivals of forgotten classics such as Metro Nova and the Berthold Wolpe Collection. He has also been involved in many aspects of multilingual typography and font development, including work on various scripts including Greek, Cyrillic, Mongolian, Tibetan, and Arabic.

Ellen Lupton

Ellen Lupton is curator of contemporary design at Cooper-Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum in New York City and director of the Graphic Design MFA program at MICA in Baltimore. Her latest exhibition is The Senses: Design Beyond Vision (April–October 2018). She recently published Design Is Storytelling with Cooper Hewitt.

Workshops

Playing with a Heidelberg: Damiano Bandini’s letterpress workshop Damiano Bandini loves letterpress, and movable type. This is why he still runs an old letterpress workshop in downtown Faenza, carrying on the passion and knowledge handed down from father to son. La Vecchia Stamperia isa historic workshop (Bottega Storica dell’Emilia Romagna): everything started in 1920, so this workshop has been printing movable type on paper for more than 90 years – and counting. He has one of the largest collections of very rare metal block-prints and unique artistic wood type in use.

One day workshop, 5thth June 2019, 10.00am

La Vecchia Stamperia

Via Giulio Castellani 25

Faenza (RA)

Straights and Rounds

Richard Bailey and Bruno Maag will explain an effective and efficient approach to designing a typeface (family).

Participants will learn how to define the requirements, aesthetically, technically and linguistically, and how to set up

the design process.

Bruno began his career with an apprenticeship as a typesetter at Tages-Anzeiger, Switzerland’s largest daily

newspaper. He then studied Typography and Visual Communcations at Basel School of Design under Wolfgang

Weingart and Andre Gürtler amongst others. After graduating, Bruno emigrated to England to work for Monotype

where he established their ‘custom type department’, creating fonts for the New Yorker magazine, and others.

Recent highlights are fonts for Rio2016, multilingual type for Nokia and HP, and a lovely serif font for luxury hotel

brand Faena. He is currently investigating type and emotion, with a special interest in the physiological aspects.

Richard Bailey’s background is in corporate services, but since joining Dalton Maag he’s diversified into developing the design service offering and improving the client experience. Recent highlights include Ducati, USA Today, andAmazon. Richard holds the position of Operations Director, and is based in Dalton Maag’s London office.

Sign Painting with John Downer This class will focus on rendering a few particular styles of capital letters and scripts that were commonly used in European sign painting during the 19thth and 20th centuries.

The Original Champions of Design with Bobby Martin and Jennifer Kinon Join Original Champions of Design partners Bobby Martin and Jennifer Kinon and the OCD team for a behind-the- scenes look at their process, their work and their love of type. Since the branding and design agency was founded in 2010, OCD has partnered with a wide range of clients such as the Girl Scouts of the USA, Prospect Park Alliance, The New York Times, the National Basketball Association and The Studio Museum in Harlem to ensure their growth and creative goals. Evening talk, 8th June, 5.oopm Cinema Teatro Sarti Via Scaletta 10 Faenza

Micro Typography with Tânia Raposo In this 1 day workshop you will acquire typographic skills on the micro level — how to solve intricate typographic hierarchies, and how to fine-tune long passages of text. You will learn how and when to use various kinds of dashes, get acquainted with OpenType features and get to know all the strange characters in your glyph palette.

For further information and to register for the conference visit the website at www.letterexchange.com

Two day workshop, 6th-7thth June 2019, 10.00am

Biblioteca Comunale di Faenza (1st Floor)

Via Manfredi 14

Faenza (RA)

Two day workshop, 6th-7thth June 2019, 10.00am

Biblioteca Comunale di Faenza (2nd Floor)

Via Manfredi 14

Faenza (RA)

One day workshop, 8th June 2019, 10.00am

Biblioteca Comunale di Faenza (1st Floor)

Via Manfredi 14

Faenza (RA)

Better get planning.

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kitsunesbooks · 7 years ago

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Nier Automata is a Better Dark Souls than Dark Souls

There is a trend in modern media, especially within video games, in which the story tells the tale of a character who must suffer a great deal before ever reaching their supposed happy ending. Nier Automata is no exception, and it is a game that most certainly takes inspiration from the grandfather of this trend, Dark Souls. However, it is my honest opinion that Nier Automata handles the theme of suffering and the concept of repeating cycles far better than Dark Souls ever could. The most obvious contribution to this opinion is the much more focused writing of Yoko Taro. While his stories can be extremely convoluted and confusing, his characters are far too endearing for players to dwell on the more questionable details of his work. Dark Souls on the other hand has been hit or miss with its characters over the course of the three installments, and the series’ focus on open ended storytelling doesn’t always resonate with players. These two games both have common themes that tie back to our everyday lives and have even helped people like myself to pick themselves off the ground and continue walking forward. The overall concept is something truly wondrous and powerful and something I hope to explore in this article.

The beauty of the first Dark Souls game is how it blends a noble quest with a feeling of pointlessness. Throughout the game, you understand your goal to be the rekindling of the First Flame, but as you fight your way through the Undead Burg and the Undead Parish you begin to ask yourself a pivotal question. “What is there left to save?” The kingdom of Lordran is in ruins, undead walk its cobbled streets and there are few people left with their sanity intact. It is a dismal situation to say the least and it depletes your motivation to almost zero. You constantly doubt your goal is even worth struggling for because you aren’t even certain if it will even fix anything. Even then, there isn’t much to save in the kingdom of Lordran. Dark Souls director Hidetaka Miyazaki wanted to tell a story that was both inspired by the Western fairy tales he enjoyed as child and as well as his favorite manga, Berserk. Both inspirations are more than present within the entire Dark Souls series, this is especially true for the former. Growing up, Miyazaki enjoyed Western fairy tales, but because he wasn’t very good with English, the stories had many gaps within them that he would have to piece together himself. This open ended story telling is what influenced the Dark Souls series as a whole. It is also what allows that overwhelming sense of pointlessness to persist throughout the game.

Dark Souls’ blend of hope and hopelessness is reflective of life itself and that is one of the reasons the game resonates with players so much. It rekindles the pleasure brought on by getting through some sort of trial. Whether it be a tought college semester, and important project, or just a rough patch with friends. The almost iconic boss fights within Dark Souls capture that great sense of relief when you finally defeat one after so many tries. It is a truly beautiful and almost genius metaphor for our own existence. We constantly find ourselves trying and trying and ultimately failing time and time again. Despite so many failures we keep pushing ourselves to succeed. There are times when we are defeated and we can’t get back up for awhile, but we still persist. Dark Souls is a game that rewards persistence, but not only that, it rewards skill. Dark Souls encourages players to analyze situations and think quickly in order to find the best course of action. The very way the game controls is meant to feel more real than most “hack n’ slash” kind of games. The controller itself is divided up to represent two halves of a body. The very mechanics and controls reflect the lore and themes of Dark Souls which ultimately helps bolster the kind of metaphor it is aiming to portray. The ultimate flaw in this is that these themes are not presented upfront. Everything in Dark Souls takes a back seat and gameplay is at the forefront. Because of it’s open ended storytelling, few will be motivated enough by a single cutscene of exposition. Though, for the few that do stay, they experience a great metaphorical challenge and a test of resolve.

Nier Automata is the game that does away with the open ended storytelling the Souls games are known for nowadays, while still keeping the core themes and metaphors that were present in those same games. Yoko Taro is a master of character drama, and while the NPCs of Dark Souls are endearing and entertaining to interact with, they still have a level of open-endedness about them. Granted, Yoko Taro’s focus is only on the three main characters of Nier Automata, their interactions with one another and the overall arc of the story helps to perpetuate the concept of the repeating cycle. Even the first words uttered by 2B in the first route of the game state clearly that this story is neverending. The beauty of Nier Automata is the fact you are not playing an avatar like in Dark Souls. The fact that Dark Souls puts you into the world via a created character and its NPCs are more or less lackluster in terms of an overarching story means that the ties you have aren’t nearly as strong. Nier Automata puts you in the shoes of three fleshed out characters with personalities far different from your own. They talk to each other, they share moments together, the player, in this instance, is just an observer. I think that this is what helps Nier Automata pull one out from underneath Dark Souls. Its three main characters and the ways they interact are completely endearing and it makes the story all the more emotional when things don’t go their way. You find yourself wishing desperately that those three androids could be happy and that is the root of Nier Automata’s emotional investment.

The suffering that 2B, 9S, and A2 all go through is yet another reflection of life. Everyone just wants to be happy, but we are all caught in a cycle of happiness and suffering. Happiness doesn’t seem to be permanent for anyone. When things finally hit rock bottom for our heroes, we find ourselves empathizing heavily because we more than likely have been in similar places, or were experiencing those same emotions when we sat down and played. It is an almost cathartic experience as you can’t help but cry with those lovable androids as they slowly break down emotionally. Route C/D of Nier Automata is no easy thing to complete as it is the most emotionally charged part of the game, and honestly, one of the most emotional parts of any game I’ve played. It is when Yoko Taro really does bring out his best talent and forces us to watch as the characters we spent two whole playthroughs bonding with collapse under the weight of their problems. It replicates the feeling of empathy we get towards a close friend and represents a powerful understanding of emotional writing. Giving players all this time to bond with 2B and 9S only to then drag them through the mud is one of the best writing choices this game made, but it is by far the absolute best.

The greatest thing this game has to offer is it’s final ending. Ending E is one of the best endings I have ever seen in a video game and it is what brings the themes of Nier Automata to forefront. The game takes a dramatic shift by addressing the player directly and essentially interviewing the player. The final conversation the player has with the game is one of the most heart wrenching and relatable things I have seen in a video game and I think it definitely is one of the best ways I’ve seen to end a game. It was that ending that cemented Nier Automata as one of my favorite games of all time. The powerful message behind that ending and the ultimate breaking of the cycle is a moment still imprinted within my mind and it will stick with me for a very long time. It is the same feeling I got whenever I defeated a particularly tough boss in Dark Souls, but magnified exponentially. That is what makes Nier Automata so good. While Dark Souls rewards persistence consistently with each boss fight, Nier Automata holds out on that feeling of relief to absolute end of the game. That is what makes that relief all the more potent and heartwarming.

Both of these games represent powerful metaphors for life and the struggle we go through day in and day out. Ultimately, Nier Automata’s character drama gives it an edge over Dark Souls as it also reflects the mechanics of the Souls series in terms of the way death is handled. Both games have extremely similar themes, but Nier Automata is far more relatable and its charm and gameplay are what will drive more people to play it, while Dark Souls will forever be recognized for its difficulty alone. It is a shame, but understandable why. Nier Automata is one of the best souls-like games in terms of theming and I hope that Yoko Taro’s next project does more with these themes. Nier Automata is a game I plan to treasure for the rest of my life and I urge anyone going through a rough patch in their life to sit down and play it. You will not be disappointed.

#Nier Automata #2B #9S #A2 #Yoko Taro #Hidetaka Miyazaki #Dark Souls #Solaire #Praise the Sun

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maggieinnepal · 7 years ago

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Students ROCK

I’m starting to be completely psyched about the students. It took just a bit at first because they are college freshman and pretty consumed with what they are doing in their lives and with each other. They are not as quick to latch on or show excitement to the PAs as the middle school and high school students were, but now that they are seeing that we are young adults with senses of humor too, they are coming out of their shells and they are the best! They are always excited to see you on campus and in the halls, and have started inviting us to do stuff (tomorrow some of the students in my class are cooking hotpot for us in the dorm kitchen!).

There’s 282 students split into 14 classes, or sections. Each section has a teacher and a few PAs. They’ve assigned 4 PAs to each of sections 001-003. These sections are called ‘A1’s – they are the ones who are really riding the struggle bus based on their entrance test. The twelve of us PAs on these sections run a more intensive speaking curriculum than the ‘A2s’ (sections 004-014). My section – 001, which is supposed to be the weakest group of the 14 sections, only has around 15 students. Although I began with section 001, I also began working with section 003 at the beginning of the week for half of each day. The section 001 PAs (yay for us!), apparently did an extra great job in our evening activities section after the first two days of camp, and so they did some tradsies amongst sections and moved me and a fellow PA Zak into two other sections to be ‘lead PAs’. So now I work with section 001 in the morning session, and section 003 in the afternoon and evening activity sessions. Really this lead thing means nothing, all the PAs are great, I think it was more of just a transferring of ideas and energy.

The very first day of camp was a total mind f+^$& for me. There was a special schedule due to the fact that all the students had to do tests in order to check that they had been placed in the right section. Somehow, while the other 37 PAs were assigned to different rooms of 6-8 students to watch them take a test and make sure they didn’t cheat, my teaching partner John and I were assigned to teach 3 sections, of 40min listening/reading class, back to back to back, with ~50 students in each class. Without any of the student’s teachers present, or a co-teacher PA. Like, me in a big room of fifty 18-20 year olds. I had no idea what I was walking into or what was going to happen until I was handed the materials by the program coordinator and walked into the room, and was immediately EXCEEDINGLY happy that I had some experience teaching . If not I would have pooped my pants right in front of the class. Even though I was a tiny bit annoyed to be blind sighted by this assignment, especially when the other 37 PAs were chilling out for 2 hours, I genuinely really love teaching. It was actually really fun to be up in front of a class again without training wheels or co-teachers. I got to run the class how I wanted to run it. (This is a little like my dislike of travelling in groups….no one likes having to compromise…). I’ve missed it and it really was a lot of fun in the end J

So camp is set up like this:

We finally settled into a daily schedule that is actually quite intense. The PAs go to the last hour of morning classes which is from 11-12. In this section we basically divide up so that we are one PA per group, and help the students with the group work that they are working on. This is where I get to work with section 001. Next, there is a lunch break, and then students report back to the classrooms for a 3-rotation of afternoon activities. There’s computer lab, listening/reading lesson, and ‘talk time’ . PAs are responsible for teaching talk times (at least for weeks 1 and 2). For A2s, this means a set of games and activities, but for A1, this means 3 rounds of ‘speed interviews’. These are absolutely exhausting, but ultimately the best possible activity for very low level students to be doing with their time. Each group has 4-5 students, so each of the 4 PAs takes a student for 10 minutes and just has conversation. Every 10 minutes the students rotate. Each student talks to each PA for 10 minutes, and then the first session is done and the next group of students comes in. This means that as PAs, we hold 12 mini 10-minute conversations with non-native speakers, which let me tell is you is TIRING! Luckily, the better we get to know the students, the more fun it is because you get to know them as people, and also get to know their individual English proficiencies better, meaning that it is easier to choose topics and establish a dialogue that you know they will be able to understand, instead of grasping at straws for things they may be able to comprehend.

After the afternoon activity session, there is clubs and sports for an hour. Somehow, my friends Pearl and Dex and I got drafted to run the badminton club(?!?). This has ended up being loads of fun. I got to pick up a new sport and it turns out that it is really, really fun. Some of the students are REALLY good at it, and it’s fun to watch them. The kids come to club and we play doubles at the university sports complex, rotating the loosing team out and a new team in for 5-point games. SO fun!!!

After sports and clubs there is a dinner break and then evening activities from 7:30-8:30, which means basically just games – no studying. Today section 003 group watched Grease…..maybe shouldn’t have watched a movie during evening activities but it waaaas in English, and the kids had had a long day. And so did the PAs.

The 001s and 003s are coming along SO well its sort of incredible! Kids that just giggled and hid their faces if they were asked ‘How are you?’, are now sitting down with me at speed interviews and breaking into monologues about their weekend. It’s amazing what consistent, relentless exposure to a language will do for students. It’s inspiring and wonderful to see their confidence sky-rocket. Love this job!

Mags

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mystech-master · 8 years ago

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Zaun Q&A Tidbits

Piltover one here

Piltover got a reddit Q&A, now it’s Zaun’s turn.

link here

question asked by fan

answer from rioter

Q: What made you decide to join Zaun and Piltover into one super-city and what inspired this direction?

A. This had been in the works for a long while. I know early discussions on the two cities idea were meant to emphasize the differences and similarities of the two cities, while ramping up that connection and conflict through being so close together. They have no choice but be aware of each other every day, and it allows us to delve into ideas about what a symbiotic relationship looks like when not everyone is happy about it. It felt different to all of our other regions, it heightened possibilities for conflict (and therefore drama), and meant we could play very different Champs off each other pretty easily. Regions need to have natural hooks for storytelling and provide opportunities that other places don't. After all, if your new city just does the same as another on the other side of the world, why does the story world need it?

Q. Is Twitch still a resident/champion of Zaun?

A. Yes! He will eventually be getting some bio and story love too

Q. I recall some concerns about Zac's parents being deceased in the new lore; what made the team decide to "Uncle Ben" them?

I feel really bad about it; they were cool people who did the right thing, and raised Zac responsibly and lovingly. Those teasers with their scribbled notes on them were really sweet; there's one where they call him cute that makes me smile. Them getting killed in the lore update really guts me, honestly.

At the least I wish one of Zac's parents lived, to be his Aunt May rooting for him. Does Zac really have to be Batman, and not Spiderman?

I do like Ekko's lore, where he explicitly isn't an orphan, so I can't complain that everyone has dead or missing parents, but still, I feel so bad about Zac's plight.

A. Hi, the thinking behind that was that with them still alive, teaching Zac right from wrong, he didn't really have anywhere to go as a character. Was him being good a product of their guidance or something coming from him and what he'd learned? Now he has to embody the goodness he wants for himself by himself, and that's a much more interesting story space...

Q. Any pre-existing characters served as inspiration for Viktor? Parallels with Doctor Doom are plenty in my mind.

How far has he progressed in terms of his evolution? Does he still need to breathe/eat, has he augmented his cognitive abilities?

It's strongly hinted that he does still have shreds of humanity about him. Is there any part of him that holds any regrets on where he is and how he got there? Or is he completely satisfied with his current existence?

How do you think he feels about Zaun? Characters like Ekko/Blitz/Zac/WW seem almost inseparable from the city, what does Viktor think about it?

Edit: Can he remove his mask? There are mentions of smiles in his story but all we see in the game is his mask. Is it removeable or grafted into his skin?

A. I was inspired by the real-life scientists who worked on developing local anesthesia. Some of them experimented on their own bodies to see if the anesthesia worked before trying their techniques on patients during operations. That mentality felt very much true for Viktor, who wants to make humanity better and would never intentionally hurt someone - he would absolutely test a new method on himself if he thought it might be dangerous or hurtful.

Viktor has performed many modifications to his own mind and body, but neither his body nor mind are entirely machine - right now he is a hybrid, though he is constantly upgrading and tweaking his mechanical parts.

I don't think he feels regret - what would be the point? I'm sure like anyone he has made decisions that he would have changed in hindsight, but he doesn't dwell on these. He uses the knowledge he gains from each experience to move forward and do better in the future. I do think Viktor is happy with his current levels of mechanical modifications, and has eliminated many problems from his life through his experimentation.

Like many of the characters from Zaun, Viktor is very much a product of his society. He has been able to use the ingenuity, freedom, and boundless resources of the city in order to create progress and experiment in ways beyond what anyone had yet accomplished. He is not limited to the rules and regulations that held him back in Piltover - here in Zaun, he can do what no one thought possible.

I've always seen the mask as something he can remove and put back on as needed (i.e., to take a sip of sweetmilk).

Q. I love what you did for Viktor. He's oddly enough "human" and despite augmenting himself with cold steel he's surprisingly warm. He's very sympathetic despite his methods being rather questionable at times.

A. Glad you liked the Viktor story! :D I had fun trying to imagine what it's like to have have such a strange, logical distance from emotions. And yeah, I definitely don't see him as cold - he can still empathize with others, but he isn't swayed by what he sees as unnecessary emotions like fear.

Q. Can i ask do you think Viktor is a scientist before a machine herald because he shows signs of sympathy

A. Interesting question. I would say he is both; they are not mutually exclusive. Viktor very much values science and the scientific method - he teaches Naph to ask questions that dig deeper into a rumor, and to value primary sources as evidence above hearsay. Viktor also believes humans have certain weaknesses of spirit that machines do not have, so he's still very much a "machine herald". Through augmentations, Viktor has done his best to rid himself of what he sees as useless and harmful emotions, but he still has empathy for others (as is hopefully evident in this story).

Q. Is Zaun's design and style based off of any real cities?

A. Not wholesale, but all of our work is derived from a lot of real-life references mixed in a particular combination (that will feel like Zaun if you get a sort of rough formula down). There's plenty of Victoriana and Art Deco references, but we don't tend to reference the entire art movement, because that can be too broad. For Zaun's case, we specifically looked at the industrial design in that era and took design cues from it and translated that to architecture instead.

We also kinda think of things like symbolism and how shapes 'feel' to people. For instance, Zaun has a lot of struts and vertical elements. Narratively, we can explain that by saying it's bare metal, it's rough, unpolished, it's the Zaunites' way of building sturdy platforms out from rock. But visually, having struts and vertical elements brings us to a specific industrial era and sets the visual tone of the place as well. So we try and capitalize on these feelings and associations to create the mood of the faction as well.

Response to ^: So Zaun is 1930s New Jersey but in a big canyon?

Response to ^: That's a really good description. We'll go with that. :) It also has strange mechanically augmented people and mutant rats

Q. Would Warwick ever attempt to hunt down Dr.Mundo? How would it go?

So, since Viktor is a misunderstood "Villain", would you say Jayce is a misunderstood hero? It seems like he's really arrogant and only cares about the glory.

A: Ooh. That's an interesting idea.

I'd like to think that Jayce has legitimate heroism within him, but he just needs to stop thinking he's better than everyone else and start focusing on how to work with people.

Q. I have to know, in Viktor's colour story, did he choose to assist Naph solely out of a desire to test and see the results of his fear-suppressing chip mixed with an expectation of a future evolution; or was it derived as well from his lingering human impulses to uplift and grant agency to the downtrodden?

I'm honestly not sure what to, or even what I want to believe of him. The candid nature of Viktor both in his bio and Emberflit Alley really caught me off guard.

A. This isn't the first time Viktor has used the fear-suppressor - he's certainly not using Naph as a test subject. I think Viktor witnessed an inequity when he saw Naph bullied outside his door, knew exactly how that he could help, and fixed the problem. The whole reason Viktor developed all his mechanical augmentations is not just science for science's sake - he genuinely wants to help people and make the world a better place.

Q. to the artist: how did you make sure that each others style matches and do you guys have a end picture in mind or start and see where it takes you?

A. Great question! The team has a central idea of what each faction feels like and we try to boil it down to key phrases and also key shapes. We used words like "Industrial", "Claustrophobic", "Pipework", among others, for Zaun. We spend a lot of time gathering reference and trying out different shapes until we hit upon a palette that represents Zaun. Circles, curves, repetitive struts, holes punched in metal. This way, any artist who works on Zaun has a body of research and a database of sorts to work from.Generally, I don't think we have an end picture in mind that's very clear. We have this general idea of how it should feel like, but we don't really know what it'll end up looking like until we go through an iterative process and finally land an image that 'clicks' and excites everyone.

A2. In addition to what u/riotwhren said about structures, In term of style itself you can compare Piltover and Zaun : in the case of Piltover, a lot of the architecture and shapes tend to be geometrical and symmetrical , a bit like American Art Deco style, Whereas in Zaun, their ability and craft of metal enables them to do a lot of round shapes, tubes, and intricate flowing shapes quite reminiscent of the Art Nouveau metro gates in Paris.:)

Q. What were your inspirations for Zaun? What was the in-house sorta guidelines for what made Zaun? Also, incredible work on the stories - Zaun feels like a living, breathing place and it makes me feel a lot more connected to the champions and proud of Ekko for fighting for it.

A. Hmmmm, I think the key thing we kept repeating over and over again in meetings, both narratively and visually, was... "We need to make it livable. It can't be too dire with no hope whatsoever, it's gotta feel like someone might actually want to visit it".

And of course, the color green. Before we really delved into exploring the visuals, all the green in Zaun was conceptually all from goo and toxic poisons. But we wanted to make it more livable, so eventually the idea emerged that we could represent the green with the cultivairs, and also moss on bricks and stuff instead of neon goo. That way we kept the green but also made Zaun feel more livable.

Q. will you keep making lore in perspectives of citizens/people who aren't the actual champions?

A. Most certainly, yeah. It's fun for us (and hopefully for you) to see the world of Runeterra through the eyes of people who aren't mega-badasses. Like how reading Tales of the Mos Eisley Cantina made the Star Wars trilogy feel much bigger and deeper.

Stories about characters who aren't champions allows us to delve into the world in ways the champions can't (or don't often). It broadens the world and keeps it from feeling 'small' by virtue of so many champs all being involved in the everyday lives of people.

Q. Hello! I am a lore aficionado, and have read and loved every champion's lore, and would like to know more about Warwick, and why you decided to remove Soraka from his lore when she was a very prominent part of his two previous lores. His new lore is still excellent, but it hurts to see such a major player in his lore tragically torn from her spot in his story and character. :(Sincerely, A Warwick main.

A. Partly it was so we can make Soraka her own woman/celestial, partly to give Singed and Warwick's relationship a bit more focus and dynamism. Though we like to include relationships in the origins of our Champs, it's best to do so when those relationships amplify the core of who the Champ is. Personally, I think it was a good move for all three Champs.

Q. Why are u trying to blur some champions identities if u don't have an exact idea of what they are? I'm talking about Janna (also happened to Amumu and Rammus in the past) I mean we are supposed to know exactly what they are, what s up with this ambiguity?

A. Personally, I don't find Janna's identity all that ambiguous -- she's got some mystery, sure (as magical things should in order to feel properly magical, in my opinion), but she's assuredly a physical manifestation of faith and hope from sailors who prayed for fair winds. Which is why her superpowers are summoning wind and hugging sad gay boys.

Q.--- If you'll indulge me a little further, Noxus's "Conquer and patriate" seems very similar to the Roman Empire's way of running things. Would you say that Noxus's control over Valoran is roughly equivalent to the Roman Empire's control over Europe? And furthermore, does Demacia actually pose much of a threat to Noxus, or do they function more as a "stubbornly unconquerable defender" rather than a political rival?

A. Yep! Noxus is similar to an ancient Rome or ancient Persia. And "stubbornly unconquerable defender" is an accurate assessment for Demacia!

Q. A question to help better visualize the city: what sort of fashion do Zaunites wear? What are the differences between each societal class in their dress (i.e. what do the rich vs. poor wear?) And lastly, is there any sort of 'people of Zaun' type concepts anywhere? As I recall, there was at least one concept image for Piltover's people! Thanks!

A. We do have people concepts, but I'm not sure when we're getting them on Universe. In terms of fashion, there are definitely differences between the classes -- among the lower and middle classes, lots of rolled-up sleeves, layers, and various mechanisms to keep the toxins out and your feet dry. Among the upper classes, brighter, vibrant colors (because $$$), and there's less need to have protective elements in your clothes, so more refined patterns and cuts. In fact, I'd say the rich chem barons would pride themselves on looking nicely presented when riding one of the lush elevators up and down the city.

Q. Does Blitzcrank have any hextech going on in him, or is he entirely steam powered?

A. Blitzcrank does not have any hextech within his core - he's made from a bunch of discarded golem parts originally powered by steam, but Blitz reconfigured his own mechanics in order to help others. So you might say that he's fueled by the power of LOVE. <removes tinfoil hat>

Q. Has Ryze, in his travels throughout the years, ever been involved with Zaun in some way?

A. I'm sure he's passed through at some point...

Q. Is there any form of police or anything of the sort in Zaun? half of these guys hunt people at night just for the lulz

A. The Chem-barons are the kind of unofficial law down there, keeping their patches secure and keeping things - more or less - safe. It's not good for business when things get too out of hand, but it can. And when it does, the retribution is swift and brutal. Also, if things get too out of hand down there, the Pilties might come down...

(Also if you look on the reddit page there is a huge discussion, too huge for this post, where the Rioters actually ask why people liked the Journal of Justice so much and why they got rid of it. Go check it out if you’re one of those butt hurt people who hate the new lore).

Q. Why the change for Mundo? Why change him from being a scientist who became twisted from his own experiments to being 'lol idk he's purple'?

A. Because his original lore had a massive amount of crossover with Singed both in terms of narrative detail and tonal space. It also just didn't really mesh with his personality ingame, which is much more jovial and darkly comic.

Q. So Blitzcrank is a self-learning AI, but do computers exist in Valoran? if not, is hextech magic enough to this kind of processing?

A. Piltover and Zaun does not have mass production or the factory system - everything they create is made by a talented craftsperson who has studied for years. So all creations are unique, one-of-a-kind bespoke creations, meaning no computers. Blitzcrank doesn't have hextech within his core, he's a steam-powered golem who modified his own mechanics and became sentient in order to make a greater difference in Zaun.

Q. why zaun is full of criminals ? was it a good place in another time ?

A. Not everyone is a criminal, there's a lot of awesome people in Zaun, but harsh times can lead to harsh responses from some.

Q. What exactly is the relationship between Jinx and Ekko?

A. It's complicated.

Q. And what's the relationship between Taliyah and Ekko?

A. I'm not aware there is one...? Though the kid from Shurima might have passed through Zaun in her travels and I suspect they'd have found kindred spirits in one another.

Q. Is Mundo's tongue purple or blue?

A. The blue in the splash is from the potion he drank.

Q. What kind of relationship do Zaun and Noxus have? Does Zaun regularly supply weapons to Noxus, or does it try to refrain from getting involved in that age-old Demacia/Noxus conflict?

A. Zaun/Piltover trade with Noxus and it's an amicable (as far as any relation with Noxus goes) but the empire is now beginning to see that maybe, just maybe, there's something to this new-fangled technology that's coming out of these two cities.

Q. Does Viktor know about Orianna and if so, what does he think of her?

A. I'd be surprised if he didn't know about her, and he likely thinks of her as some inventor's folly, not yet realizing that there's more to her than a simple clockwork automaton.

Q. How did Zaun become so toxic and poisoned, it was a normal City like Demacia before anything, wasn't it? :D

A. There was a catastrophe in Zaun's past that sank it into canyons and cliffs that ripped through the landscape, which together with the chem-tech researches that have happened since...well, that's not a good mix.

Q. Any chance of Zaun being completely free from all the gas and poisonous filth? :D

A. I suspect their are chem-alchemists working on that very thing right now.

Q. Were there any inspirations you guys drew upon in the making of Janna's new backstory? I've always wanted a Miss Peregrine-type character in League, so I couldn't be more happy with her new lore, personally <3

A. Kiiiiiind of? We mainly just beat our heads against a wall for a couple weeks until we came up with something that we all liked. We sort of realized after the fact that she's slightly Neil Gaiman-y -- a god who was forgotten and then came back as more people started believing in her again.

#reddit #lol #league of legends #zaun #q&A #zac #viktor #blitzcrank #ekko #jinx #the secret weapon #the machien herald #the boy who shattered time #the loose cannon

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rigelmejo · 4 years ago

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random notes about drawbacks/positives of mia:

My biggest incompatibility with the massive immersion approach (and in general a lot of good modern study methods) is I hate flashcards. It’s not that I dislike them as a concept - I am just super bad at concentrating on them. I am NOT good at doing the following: focusing on small bits of information, studying for short periods but Regularly, Reviewing Regularly, and sometimes I just genuinely can’t retain small concentrated reading sentences to the point it takes me 10 MINUTES a flashcard in order to understand/study it. As you can imagine, that last part is NOT efficient, and ends up making flashcards even slower for me as a study method then they’re ever meant to be. I can’t control when I’m unable to figure out/concentrate on small bits of information, so some months flashcards work as intended for me (I can review 10-20 in 10 minutes), but other months suddenly 10 flashcards takes me an hour. So I am not good at sticking to flashcards consistently - once the hard months hit, I don’t keep up with reviews, because they suddenly take way more time then they ‘should.’ However, when I can focus I try to make up the difference - and do 20-100 cards a day while I have the ability to do flashcards at a regular pace. On the upside, I’m proof you can do the SRS flashcard reviews, in a very chaotic way, and still get benefits. How I’ve done flashcards: cram 300-1000 in a couple weeks to a month, including whatever reviews I need. 2nd month - review if I can still focus, and do a few new cards (like 5-15 a day at most). By the time I can’t focus, most words are relatively-known and I only would need to review them once a week or every few weeks - if I COULD focus on reviews. However, I only actually review once a month or less at this point - and I’ll only review 20ish cards usually in that rare instance, unless I have a good day. I will not usually review the majority of those cards until my next burst of can-focus-on-flashcards usually in 2-3 more months. I have done all my flashcards THIS INCONSISTENTLY, and I’ve still retained a lot of what I studied. What I think helps: immersing in other content when you can’t do flashcards, so that you’re often still being exposed to words you studied (so they’re easier to not forget even though you stopped doing flashcards). So yeah... inconsistent flashcards, and some immersion exposure, and I was able to keep some of the gains SRS flashcards generally provide people. I can’t do flashcards consistently, and I usually have to do them in big-chunks then abandon them, but they do help me boost up how much I know when I DO use them.

More regarding my incompatibility with mia. The big thing is: I’m just not a flashcard person, not a consistent person. I have to vary what I’m doing regularly, or I burn out/struggle to focus. When I was in school, I would do the following to study: take notes/focus intently when being taught, then read the textbook/materials if I needed more help. Before tests, or to ‘review’ I would reread my notes from beginning to end of what I needed to remember. This would refresh my memory. If I still forgot/did not understand anything, I’d pinpoint that info in the book/ask my teacher/go online etc and try to just focus most of my ‘harder’ studying on those parts I was struggling with. Usually just taking notes/focusing, then reviewing everything in bulk right before I needed it (so maybe once every few weeks), was enough. When I couldn’t take notes, I would instead skim through book chapter summaries, and rewatch lecture videos if there was a digital copy - focusing most on the videos when info I forgot/sounded like key information was mentioned. Basically - notes, summaries, short cheat sheets, were all my friends. For tests like math and physics, I would read my notes AND make mini-sheets of all key formulas and how to do them/what I needed for them (usually I already had a sheet I just kept adding to over time/rereading). I could not use flashcards back then - I couldn’t focus, not consistently, not the way they’re meant to be used. It took me too long to even make them to warrant them being useful to me (I take SO long to make flashcards, its also a focus issues - also why when I do SRS flashcards I usually just grab some premade deck cause it keeps me MOVING and actually STUDYING instead of getting frozen in a task).

This has always been my go-to study method. When I started chinese, this is how I learned 400 characters/basic words. I bought a reference book with mnemonics, and would make myself read through it (as if it were notes I took). Occasionally I’d flip through old pages again, just to see if I still recognized old stuff, but mostly I just kept moving forward. So like - flip back every couple weeks to skim old pages, but read forward every day. I got through half the book before I burned out (because... reference books with their short entries of information? a lot like flashcards in structure, except thankfully I don’t regularly review afterwards like I would with flashcards). It still took me 10-20 minutes for 10 entries in the book, but unlike flashcards it was a one-time task. When I got done, I had learned them pretty well - and I didn’t do anything to review them. They were just reviewed with immersion naturally, and eventually when I started studying common words these characters came up again (so if I forgot any, I relearned them easier then). This approach is roughly how I learned all words not in my premade-flashcard decks. I’ll read a chinese book - just start reading through it, looking up words I want to learn. I don’t review them, I don’t look them up again. Sometimes, maybe once a month, I’ll reread an old chapter to see what progress I’ve made - and then lookup unknown words then, as review since I didn’t remember them the first time. It sucks in a way... that SRS flashcard style study methods just.... do not work consistently for me. They are still beneficial, because in short month bursts I can quickly learn 500-1000 things with SRS (which is faster than some classes introduce words). But overall I have to rely on other study methods. Which for me feel inconsistent in progress since I can’t measure it as easy lol! Even with no SRS, doing ‘bursts’ of this read-intensively note-like materials, then very occasionally skim old material again, does seem to work out okay for me. Back when I learned to read french, I did no flashcards. I looked up a common words list (and used my class vocabulary lists). I read through them once. Before tests (if for class), or every few weeks, I re-read/skimmed the word lists. By 3-4 months I learned the first 500 words. Then, since french has a lot of ‘similar’ sort of words, I just sort of dived into reading and then picked up words mostly that way - just checking a word list every month or so to review known words and make sure I didn’t have some big gap of missing vocabulary.

So I guess: for me the biggest positive in mia is the suggestion to immerse often, frequently, and with a variety of materials. So that you practice different skills, learn a variety of things - and so you can move to something you like, if you get bored/unable to focus on one specific type of material. With mia you can read novels for a month, then get sick of reading and just watch shows/listen to podcasts when you walk, then if you’re burnt out from that you can just browse social media and check out fanfics/manhua/friends posts in the language for a few days or weeks before picking up longer materials again. The point is just to find ways to immerse, and do it. Simple advice. SUPER simple advice. But incredibly useful - every single time I add more immersion, I notice a boost in my comprehension. I notice actual improvement over time. I can’t pinpoint ‘why’ it happens, so unfortunately I’m not sure which complementary study methods or ways of immersing are helping me precisely with improvement in which skills. But I can tell that I am improving. I would 100% agree that immersing more is worth trying, at any language learning stage, as much as you want to. I immersed in the first months in both french and chinese, and I did much better than with japanese (where I did not immerse for 2 years and so my level stayed A1 beginner for like 2 years...). My French last time it was tested was around B1, which is fine since I just wanted to read and guess where my skills are closer to A2 and dragging it down? (Yes. Yes of course its speaking ability, of course). My chinese as far as I can pinpoint it is around HSK 4, as far as material I can easily read/listen to, as far as the practice tests I can take online. (Which, again, I’d self evaluate and say my comprehension is at HSK 4 or higher - I definitely can rely on good ability to guess meanings with hanzi and my comfort following grammar easily to boost comprehension a bit higher, but my speaking/writing is lower and I definitely only feel totally comfortable discussing topics that are manageable at HSK 3 - and my production grammar-wise is understandable but SO full of ‘this is the wrong way, use this instead’ which I’m working on...). So like... I got much farther in a year with each language I immersed in - even with the limited immersion I do actually do! So more immersion - better. While I’m on the topic of immersion: if you like reading, read often and early. I am better off for telling myself “its not hard to read” and just diving in the deep end. Was it hard? ahahaha yes. ;w; But, I realize if I’d put off reading until say HSK 4 or HSK 5 knowledge in chinese, reading would be EVEN HARDER because I’d be so much worse at quickly reading through grammar/gathering context clues. Reading is a mix of actual reading skill, and vocab. I built up a lot of the actual reading skill by starting to try to read super early. So now my main struggle is generally just lack of vocabulary - and since I understand all surrounding grammar very well, its easier for me to roughly-guess at unknown words function and still follow the gist of what’s going on. Reading early also means, for words and hanzi I DO already know, I learned to recognize the many contexts/phrases they show up in and the various words they combine into earlier. So again, when I’m looking at a new text the hardest words are new vocab made of ALL unknown hanzi - if I know one hanzi in the word, it’s something I can often approximately guess the meaning of especially when I understand the entire rest of the sentence. If a new word is spelled with all known hanzi, I can look it up once or twice and generally remember it very fast - since its connected to what I already know. If I had waited to read until I’d learned more vocab, I would have less of a reading skill foundation to rely on right now. And based on what I’ve read of at least some people’s experiences on chinese-forums.com, many readers will go through a STEEP uncomfortable period when starting to read chinese. Something vocab does not totally mitigate. I think it just takes many hours, of the reading skills getting less and less hard, and then eventually things get more comfortable. There is also the issue of ‘comprehensible’ reading material - depending on your tolerance for ambiguity, chinese can be painfully incomprehensible for a long time. Generally people feel comfortable once they comprehend 98% of a material. But in chinese, even once you learn thousands of vocab, depending on your reading skills and abilities to ‘guess from context clues’, you will not be at 98% yet. Even if you can guess from context clues, that isn’t solid comprehension its still ambiguously understood material. So to get used to reading chinese as a learner, you have to start getting used to how it feels to read stuff only 80% comprehensible. Only 90% comprehensible. And if you get good and learn a lot of vocab and grammar and understand it better when you see it - 95%. Which is still not the range of ‘comfort’ yet. The quicker you learn to not be stressed by the ambiguity, the less painful reading becomes. And the more tolerable it is, the more you can read, and the quicker you can learn more, and the quicker you’ll REACH 95% to 98% comprehensibility. But if its so painful you refuse to keep reading, to keep using reading to push comprehensibility up... it is going to be a long way until you hit 98%... Graded readers are great, and give you stepping stones to transition this experience. Graded readers are MADE to be 98% comprehensible at different learning levels, so they will FEEL comfortable. And if they do feel uncomfortable (because you don’t have high enough comprehension), then they will at least drag your comprehension up - and still be more tolerable than the alternative of even LESS comprehensible native speaker chinese language materials. Basically though... find a way to force yourself through the harder ‘intolerable’ early parts. It happens whether you know 500 words or 2000. So you’ll have to do it eventually. I get demotivated if I’ve ‘studied a lot and still understand nothing’ so my foolish self dived off the deep end at 500 words, then at 1000, then at 1500, then at 2000. Cause I kept trying to read, being frustrated at its difficulty and stopping after a few weeks, then trying again once I’d learned more! But wow did that early trying pay off. Now that I DO know more words, if nothing else the comparison of how NICE it feels to read now in comparison to in the past, motivates me a ton. If I just started reading recently, and all I knew was it felt ‘this hard’ then I might want to give up. But like... when I started, and knew 500 words, my graded readers were PAINFUL. Genuinely intimidating. Once I pushed through one? They felt easy as pie, and graded readers at that vocab-level felt so easy they got boring. Now I find graded HSK 4 material and usually read through it super fast or don’t even bother. So I can 1. read more comfortably. And 2. because I’ve BUILT up a higher tolerance to ‘ambiguity discomfort’ I can allow myself to read harder materials if I do want to - because I can still TELL it feels easier than it used to.

Finally, about MIA the study method as a concept. So... either because the site is long and people don’t like to finish reading, or maybe the writer is not good at summaries - but people often get confused about how to do it. Particular detail questions about how to do ‘this specific suggested activity’ make sense. But there’s a lot of people who ask “do I just turn on the language shows, and?? How do I learn?” Which, fair enough. So, as I understand it, here’s a summary: You want to learn a language. Find yourself a grammar guide - a free website, a book, whatever. Read the summary/guide, or skim it, whatever gives you a ‘preview’ of the language’s structure and what you’ll be getting used to over time. You will use this guide to reference later in the future, whenever grammar in stuff you see confuses you. You can use multiple guides later to reference. Right now, just zoom through a guide and get a general sense of the language you’re abut to learn. You can also wait to do this step until later, whenever you want. The sooner you do it, the sooner grammar will be less mysterious to you. Find yourself a pronunciation guide. Go through it, you don’t have to be a perfectionist about ANYTHING you do before or after this. Just go through, listen to it all, try to notice how its different from your own language. Notice if there’s any major differences like tones, sounds or patterns your own language doesn’t have. You don’t need to memorize, you’re just becoming aware that these aspects exists and are different. Again, this is to get you used to the language you’re about to dive into. This should probably be done early on. Look up some info about the writing system, if it is different from your own language’s. You will probably find some explanation introductory articles for beginners. If there’s any explanations about how it works, or why it’s like it is, read through it. This will help you understand the system better. You don’t need to memorize - although you may want to save a couple hundred common words, or a copy of all the letters, or a copy of a couple hundred common characters, or a copy of the radicals that combine to make characters. Read over this copied info a few times every once in a while, as you’ll see these things a TON once you start immersing. You find yourself a premade deck of SRS flashcards (use Memrise app, Anki program/website, some alternative) of common words in that language - ideally in sentences, but single-words work if that’s all you can find. Ideally with audio - but again, whatever you can find. You may also find an SRS deck of characters (like Heisig Remember the Kanji)/writing system specific info, if you want, to go through that deck early on to help you more with recognizing the writing system as you encounter it. Whatever decks you get, you will study those for 10-30 minutes a day. You can start doing this from day 1. (Or be like me and be inconsistent about it - just try to keep progressing forward and learning new material, even if you don’t always study. For me it was better always to move onto new stuff, instead of review, if I only had time to do one out of the two things.) Find yourself stuff to immerse with - shows, stories, audios, comics, social media, whatever. You will try to immerse every day, and try to immerse as much as you enjoy. Do this from day 1. When immersing: use either the language you are studying’s subtitles or else none at all. When watching/listening - look up words as desired, mainly though focus on context and trying to understand as much of the gist of what’s going on as you can. Over time you will pick things up. For reading - look up words as desired, and in the beginning you may look up a TON of words because you need to look up at least enough to follow the Bare Minimum Gist of What The Main Plot is. You NEED to understand at least basic context, with whatever your immersion material is, in order to learn new words from context. So: you might start with reading simple graded readers. You might use shows/books/audio of things you’ve already experienced in english, so the context is clearer to you. You might read summaries in english ahead of time. If you need more context in order to use immersion to learn any new things - then go ahead and give yourself more context. Immersion will feel difficult at first, the joy is watching you start to just ‘naturally’ pick up more. Audio immersion - for some of this, you do not need to attempt to ‘understand the gist of the plot’, you can just use it to attempt to pick out all the specific words in the language, the language’s rhythm, and get used to the language. If you’re only using an audio to learn the sounds of a language, you can probably use it as ‘background sound’ while doing other daily things, since it won’t require as constant focus as it would if you were trying to catch every single word you knew as you listened. There you go. You’re all set. Do this for a year and see where your progress is at. Quit doing this if you aren’t seeing some improvements, since if that’s the case a different study method may be better for you. Don’t do this method if you don’t like it - whatever gets you to study, is the right methods for you. No point doing something that doesn’t work for you. Eventually, as you make progress, you will decide on goals and notice mistakes/shortcomings in your skills. When that happens, add additional study materials/tasks as needed to focus specifically on those things as desired. For example - if you notice your pronunciation sucks, you may start using audio-focused flashcards, or go through a pronunciation guide again more carefully-thoroughly this time. Or - you realize your writing is bad, so you go through a grammar guide again and do the exercises, and get language partners and write to them regularly so that you get corrections. Eventually, you finish a common word flashcard deck - find a new deck, or make one, with new words you want to learn or need to based on your goals. The massive immersion approach is a basic plan of immerse-while-paying-attention+study new words/review words regularly, it doesn’t include every single thing you might do or want to do.

Anyway, mm. tldr: massive immersion approach suggests doing immersion of all kinds, from day 1. I couldn’t agree more, every time I add more immersion when studying a language it helps so significantly and over time. however, mia also has half of it’s study method based on SRS flashcards - if you are not a flashcard person like me, my alternative study ‘method’ above works. It’s not perfect, its probably not as effective. But it works if you can’t focus on SRS flashcards reliably. Finally, I summarize mia a little.

#rant #study method #mia #mass immersion approach

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entergamingxp · 5 years ago

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Mortal Engines-style game Last Oasis aims to solve the survival genre’s problems • Eurogamer.net

Remember the Mortal Engines film that came out a few years ago? Me neither, but something that could scratch that itch for massive roving machines is on its way, as Last Oasis is heading into early access this week – and I’ve had an early look via an online press demo.

First announced as part of the PC Gaming Show last year, Last Oasis is a post-apocalyptic MMO survival game with an enticing hook: you’re a nomad in a vast desert which can be traversed with rickety wooden walkers, sent out by society to collect resources and ensure humanity’s survival. The lore behind this explains that Earth’s rotation has stopped, meaning the planet is split into fiery desert and extreme cold, with a small sliver of hospitable land in the middle. As the sun moves, the nomads must also travel to avoid the burning rays. It’s a clever backstory, but is it enough to separate it from the crowd of other survival MMOs?

During the early stages, Last Oasis shares many of the mechanics you’d expect to see in survival games like Rust: harvesting wood, crafting better tools, and a tech tree that can be expanded with technology gathered from old wrecks and settlements. While ranged combat is an option on the walkers, we were also shown hand-to-hand melee, which aims to provide more depth than other survival games by tracking whether players click on the right or left-hand side of the screen, with melee hits corresponding to these in-game. As the same mechanic works for blocking, it means there’s some level of reflexive skill rather than just spamming – and a stamina bar means you’ll have to deploy your hits carefully.

Thankfully things get interesting quite early on – your first machine, an insect-style walker, doesn’t require too many materials and plays a key role in allowing you to explore the vast environment (and providing a valuable respawn point). Players load into hexagonal worlds called oases, which in turn connect to a bunch of others across the globe as part of a larger world map. To travel between these is quick, but requires water, a valuable resource which also powers the machines you use to climb over sand dunes and find more resources. Early-stage walkers can’t hold an awful lot of water, and therefore can’t take you very far, prompting players to search for ways to upgrade or swap their machines. You get the idea.

Donkey Crew plans on developing the game by adding more content, but also introducing temporary event maps such as Rupu dungeons which players will be able to explore for an hour. Rupu are the more basic monkey enemies, if you were wondering.

As all the tiles and servers are connected across the globe (allowing European and American players to intermingle, for instance) I was a little worried about potential latency problems, but Donkey Crew project lead Florian Hofreither assured me this wouldn’t be an issue.

“We don’t expect overly-large issues because we’ve been busy from day one making sure that performance is great,” he told me. “With all survival games out there, we’ve noticed that when lag comes in at crucial moments it’s just not a great experience. So we decided to cap our servers at 100 people per server, and doing our tests we’ve seen no issues.”

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The walkers themselves are by far the most enticing aspect of Last Oasis: there’s something really satisfying about their movement, along with the clacking and groaning noises they produce. In total, there are 13 types of walker for players to choose from, some of which are better suited for certain tasks (such as attacking or moving cargo). All of them can be customised with extra parts at stationary trading posts – including slingshot cannons and darts, with options to power movement with either pedals or wings. The larger ones can provide useful shelter if attacking other players, or better stability and health for fighting massive monsters in hunting parties. Killing said creatures brings in some serious rewards – although you’ll have to put up with being shaken about, as unfortunately the big monster fight felt a little nauseating when watching the demo.

Here’s the big bug boi, called an Okkam, who caused all the trouble.

Rather promisingly, it seems the devs have gone to great efforts to dial back the sort of griefing that undermines other PvP survival games, while also maintaining some level of danger. Offline raiding isn’t an option, while player-clans are given incentives to protect players that come into their territory.

“The way it works is if you are on a region that is owned by a clan, then the clan will welcome you,” project lead Florian Hofreither said in response. “The reason is because a part of your resources goes to the clan as a passive income. However, that is only true if you stay alive – once you get murdered, the clan loses your bonus. It doesn’t affect you as a solo player, but the clan will try to make sure that as many players as possible stay alive on their territory. This is interesting because clans will never hunt in their own territory because they will damage themselves, and they would much rather hunt in the territory of enemy clans where they can damage them.”

If being an asshole really is your thing, however, there are still opportunities for you – a little like the way space is controlled in Eve Online, there are territories which are uncontrolled by clans where players can effectively become pirates and hunt other players without consequences. Well, unless that player has a bigger walker. But in theory, this means solo players should be able to avoid more hostile regions if they wish.

Overall, I’m still intrigued by the idea of roaming the wastes on the back of a crawling wooden structure (and the possibility of building a walker armada) – but I do have a couple of reservations. Namely, it’s difficult to see exactly how Last Oasis will work once handed over to a larger community, particularly as much of the game seems reliant on player-driven content. While we got a brief glimpse at the player-driven economy at a trading post, it’s hard to know exactly how this (or the endgame) will work out in practice until thousands of players get their hands on it. And although the devs emphasised it’s quick to travel and there are multiple biomes, I do wonder whether this game will end up feeling a little empty by virtue of being, well, a big old desert. Will there be enough to keep me entertained beyond constructing and driving my first few walkers? In any case, we’ll find out when Last Oasis enters Steam Early Access on 26th March, and as it develops over the coming years.

from EnterGamingXP https://entergamingxp.com/2020/03/mortal-engines-style-game-last-oasis-aims-to-solve-the-survival-genres-problems-%e2%80%a2-eurogamer-net/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=mortal-engines-style-game-last-oasis-aims-to-solve-the-survival-genres-problems-%25e2%2580%25a2-eurogamer-net

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coolfortunatelycoldbouquetm-blog · 6 years ago

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iannoyinglysweetstudent-blog · 6 years ago

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My husband's Cobra coverage lapsed. He has been turned down by two insurance companies for health insurance because of low testosterone levels. Any advice on where or how to apply for health insurance? He is self-employed; we live in TX.

Pay Monthly Cars and Car Insurance Package?

Hi does anyone know of any UK Company that offer a new car and car insurance combined into 1 monthly payment? I know of Young Marmalade but I would like to see if there are any other good and cheap companies out there. Thanks

""Does car insurance go down when you move to a different state, if so how do i lower mine? (see details)?""

I used to live in LA and my car insurance was 46.00. Well, I went to progressive and did a quote with my new address which is in TX and my car insurance quote is for 26.00. How do i go about getting these new rates since I no longer live in Louisiana.""

Wtever happened to insurance rates going down when you turn 25.?

My record has 1 ticket in the last 5 years and I'm still taking it in the pooper.

Chevy camaro insurance?

How much is the chevy camaro insurance a month please answer asap it's important bc my daddy said it's time fa me to starting looking at cars so I can hv one my senior year

Do car rental companies ask for proof of insurance?

Here's my circumstances, I'm 22(have credit card in my name) and am going to rent a vehicle. I had insurance for 4-5 years, have never been at an at fault accident and have one speeding ticket, so I'm a pretty good driver, when gas was near $4.00 I traded in my vehicle, and it's fine as I bike everywhere as it's all close to me. I'm having family over for a couple days and need a car though, it's easy to drive around town, I'm almost 100% sure I wont get in a wreck, but I have a feeling the insurance would be more expensive than the rental itself which is ridiculous for someone with a driving record such as mine. Can I say purchase just liability and then sign something that says I'll pay for the rental if I do any damages, what would be the cheapest way to get out of this?""

Will state farm increase my auto insurance if I get a speeding ticket??

I got a speeding ticket going 88 in a 70 in GA. Thats 2 points on my license. I was wondering if a rumor that I heard was true. Some people were telling me that they give you your ...show more

""Does price of car insurance go up, down, stay the same, after getting G licence?""

I'm in Ontario, Canada and am going for my G licence in July (I'm 26, if that makes any difference?). Right now I'm an occasional driver on my parents insurance and plan to stay that way after I get my G. Right now my insurance is 90 per month. I want to save up for enough insurance for 12 months so when I move out it's out of the way for one year. Anyway, does anyone know if the price of insurance goes up, down, or stays the same after getting your full G licence? I kind of want to figure out how much I should save up for the full year by knowing how much it'll be monthly. I plan on going in and talking to them, but I wont be able to for a few days...just curious if anyone can basically give me a heads up. Thanks.""

Advice on cheap car insurance ? UK?

hello i am a 17 year old who is currently learning to drive and hoping to buy a car afterwards, however insurance is very expensive and am seeking advice on how to get cheap car insurance, E.G. what car to buy, where to look etc.""

Car insurance in ontario?

Ok so im about to buy my first used car and i have no idea how getting insurance for your car works. im going to call around to find the best rate but do insurance companies normally make you pay anything up front? i was told that sometimes they make you pay for two months right away. is this true? i have enough for one month of insurance up front but i want to make sure i save enough money to do so if that is usually the case thanks.

Auto insurance wont pay for damages?

I was involved in a bumper to bumper accident(at fault) in a borrowed car(my fathers) here in California. Now i get a call from the insurance that they wont pay for damages to the other vehicle because im not in the policy. Im not excluded from the policy either. My father only has liability insurance. Does the insurance has to pay for damages by law?

How can I get my own insurance?

I'm 17 years old. My dad can't afford insurance because he has 4 kids and they won't give him free insurance. I live in Georgia. I need insurance cause I end up having to pay BY MYSELF like 90$ to go to the doctor. I also don't think it's okay to not have insurance. So what do I do? Where do I do this? Would they allow a 17 year old to get insurance by their self (being a minor)

Is there insurance for Antique Cars?

Hi, I have a 1971 chevrolet camaro. Wanted to ask if there was insurance for antique cars? I know i could just get liability for this car but i was wondering if i could get better coverage for my vehicle? Thanks.""

Car Insurance for 18 year old?

I am looking to buy my Daughter a small car, she is 18, what is the ideal car for me to buy, as insurance is the problem the cheapest we can find is 800 for a KA, valued at 500, thanks""

My insurance say I have to pay for the other parties repair costs and hire costs?

Do I have to pay for their car hire costs? I thought their insurance paid for it as you have that option when purchasing insurance whether you want courtesy car or not?? please help

Which of these cars would be good for a first driver? Which one would have the cheapest insurance?

1. 2005 Ford Five Hundred 2. 2000-2005 Jeep Wrangler 3. 2000-2005 Honda Accord 4. 2007 Dodge Caliber 5. 2004-2006 Mazda 3 6. 2006-2007 Volkswagon Jetta Please Help!!!!

Do Liberals know that Affordable Care Act will in fact make healthcare insurance far less affordable?

On Jan. 30 the IRS released new regulations regarding Obamacare - remember that the IRS is in charge of penalizing you should you fail to purchase the mandated insurance - that included cost estimates for the plans the government will offer. Obamacare Lie #4: Obamacare will cut the cost of a typical family's premium by up to $2,500 a year. http://moneymorning.com/2013/02/08/the-7-biggest-obamacare-lies/""

Price of car insurance?

say im 17 and buying my first car and its a 2003 bmw how much will insurance cost for it per month?

How do i get health insurance...??

I want health insurance ASAP but i dont know who to contact or what would be the best company or plan....can anyone give me some advice???

Why is my car insurance so high?

my car insurance is very high its something like 5000-10,000 and plus its only third party and the car is cheap 500 fiat punto ive checked confused several times still same prices""

Why public opt for health insurance and not public opt for health auto insurance?

Just a random question. Auto insurance is required in most (if not all) states. Health insurance is not yet. They both cost about the same out of pocket. Just curious as to why people who support public option are not also complaining about the cost of mandatory liability.

Can anyone help me regarding a huge fine for driving without insurance.?

Man, Im screwed. A few years ago I let my insurance lapse on my vehichle and didnt hand the license plates in. Failure to do so means an instant 150 dollar fine for the first month and 7$ a day afterwards. Ok, I was being a complete jackass at that time in my life and figured I would deal with it when the time comes. Well, its that time. I finally got my license back and went to buy a cheap used car. The dealer told me he cant get me plates for it cause I have a violation due to a fine for driving uninsured. The fine is off the charts, $4,455.00. Has anyone ever gotten the MVA to reduce this fee or waive it. I havent tried yet. They offer payment plans at 20% down and the rest must be paid within 2 years. I dont want to do anything illegal per say but just wanted to know if anyone has any ideas. I know, im a jackalope for letting this happen. anyone, let me know""

What are the insurance laws for cars in storage in Oregon?

I do not want to drive my car. I will just have it sitting in a garage at a relative's house. I've read from numerous people, that you don't need insurance if the car is ...show more""

""I'm in the middle of getting a motorcycle insurance quote from progressive online, and it's asking for SSN?""

It's asking for my Social Security number to give me a better quote, is this normal? I hate putting my SSN in on websites.""

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I've started a degree course at my local uni. Should I tell my car insurance company?

My policy states that I work part time at a supermarket, which I still do. But I have started a degree course as of yesterday. I'm living at home, so no change of address, and I'm using the car to drive to my lectures. The uni is actually in the same area as where I work. Does my insurance company need to know and am I going to be charged?""

How much is car insurance monthly for a new driver in Indiana about?

thanks :)

How much do you guys think insurance would cost on a 1999 Honda cbr 600 f4 for a 16 year old in ontario?

I know there are many answers but i an general estimate, and what about a hysoung gt250r""

Do i need insurance to clean a church?

do i need insurance to clean a church?

Full coverage insurance ...?

if you have full coverage car insurance does it cover you even if you take a trip that is a 1000 miles are is there a limit on how far you go?

Cheapest insurance for teens in northern ireland??

im trying to get insurance in my own name (policy) but everywhere seems to be way way too expensive! i was hoping for something around 2000 but the cheapest i found is 3400 for a group 4 insurance car!

Cheap insurance for new drivers?

Low premiums, Cheap Car insurance, Savings""

Will the eclipse GSX make my insurance more than the GS?

Ive been trying to to see if the insurance is cheaper on the GS than the GSX because i dont want to get ripped just because it has a turbo. But i also dont want to buy the GS and then have to buy a whole bunch of new stuff just to put a turbo on it.

Question about car insurance?

ok so im wondering if i get a car will worth 5000 will the insurance be the same on all cars worth 5000 like a mustang worth 5 k or a civic worth 5 k is the insurance the same on them?

""Changing insurance companies have active claim with old one, what happens?""

I have a claim with my current insurance company, waiting to get the deductible don't have it handy. But I found I can get a better rate with a different insurance company. What happens if I change companies before I get my car fixed? Does the insurance company still have to pay when I get it fixed since it happened when I was covered by them. Or do they not have to pay it since I'm no longer covered by them?""

What is an average cost of IUI without insurance?

What is an average cost of IUI without insurance and what is the success rate?

Car insurance excess?

Hi All, I'm new to car insurance game :). Could someone please explain the logic behnd the following? As a new driver, i got a couple of quotes around 1.5K but then i look at the excess and it shows 3K!!! What are they trying to do here? Make it impossible for me to make a claim? thank you.""

Any 1 want life insurance or mediclaim?

v r giving best service with lower price...

Which car would be better for insurance costs?

I'm female, 25 years old, and looking to finance my first car. (And if it matters, I'm in Ontario, Canada.) I know I can call and get a quote - but wanted to open it up to the Y!A community first :) Also, I have a clean driving record, my full G license, and I took driver's ed. What are insurance rates like for each of these cars? (And if you have experience, which car would you recommend based on performance, gas, etc?) **All of the cars I'm looking at are either 06, 07, or 08 - Volkswagen Jetta - Ford Focus - Chevy Aveo - Hyundai Accent .... so basically, a smaller car. (I really like the 2007 VW Jetta)""

Insurance? for laptop without getting home insurance?

I'm worried my brother hasn't as of yet insured his expensive laptop. What would work out more economical in the long run please: Content insurance but as a student he keeps moving, so all he wants to insure is his Laptop,mobile and passport both when it's in the house but also when traveling in the UK and abroad? (some policies like Barclays Gadget insurance make it almost impossible to make a claim ie: you can only claim if there's been a forced entry or if the Sim card is still in the phone whilst traveling. Well he lives with 8 other students and the landlord doesn't provide home isnurance in the contract, people are comming in and out of the house any one could take it from his room and the landlord won't allow him to put a lock on the door. If he's traveling abroad he will use a different SIM so... If he buys yearly travel insurance most only cover a single item up to 400, his laptop is an Applemac. Which would cover an expensive item without charging a monthyly fee above 10 per month? Stupid question but is it possible to jsut get content insurance for one room instead of Home insurance? Gadget Insurances seem pretty expensive and a lot of them don't cover the full spectrum of problems, stolen laptop whilst unattended in a hotel, lost, accidental damage even if the item is over a year, Thoughtbubble never even replied to his email enquiry. Bank insurance, they are limited and have similar policies such as above. Natwest have the advantage Gold and home contents insurance but it works out at 12 per month and his iphone won't be covered as phones have to be under 100. I don't have home insurance so he can't use ours. Please what else could he consider and no he's not giving back the gadgets and he is very careful but anything can happen. Would help to get some proper advice as even his bank Halifax didn't cheers""

What is the average cost of motorcycle insurance in ..Oregon?

What is the average cost of motorcycle insurance in Oregon?

Can I qualify for medical insurance now?

I was non insurable as of last year due to pancreas problems. I went in the hospital 2 months ago and it turns out my problems were caused from my gallbladder. Had my gallbladder removed so now is it possible for me to be insured?

Affordable dental insurance in Michigan?

I live in Saginaw Michigan and I am looking for affordable dental insurance. Any good leads?

Taking new car home with no insurance?

So the car is in my Moms name and she has insurance, but she has to drive her car home, meaning I have to drive the other one. I don't have insurance, but we are getting GAP insurance. Is this safe? If I damage the car are we covered?""

Who has the best insurance quotes?

Can I buy motorcycle insurance for one month and cancel?

I'll be going away for college in a little over a month and I wanted to insure my motorcycle to I can ride it for the remainder of the summer. If I only want insurance for one month, should I just tell them that, or buy coverage with monthly payments and stop paying after the first month? Also, if I just stop paying, will this make it harder to get coverage from them in the future?""

Where can I find health insurance as an 18 year old and I'm peregnant?

I'm an 18 year old, I live in Florida, I have a job as a CNA, I'm pregnant and married. I was woundering where can I go to get affordable health insurance and if it's likely that I'll get coverage. I would also like to know an average of what it would cost.""

""What is the cheapest insurance company for a 17 year old male, fully comp on a 1-1.2L vehicle?""

Looking around for cars and I want to know where is the cheapest, so far it is 3800 cheapest anywhere. If you have insured a car at that age can you let me know what you paid and who with? Tips on getting it lower?""

Which is the best insurance company in Kenya?

Why is my insurance so cheap?

I am a 19 year old male, and I own a 2011 Nissan Altima SL. I live in Baltimore City (which has the highest rates in the state) and have a speeding ticket and a not at fault accident. I carry 100/300/100 coverage with matching 250 deductibles. I also have vanishing deductible, accident, and minor violation forgiveness. I pay 172.00 per month. I thought I could save a few bucks and switch companies, however, I quoted literally every company available in MD and the lowest I found was 580 a month for the same coverages. Thats a HUGEEE difference! I am starting to wonder if something is wrong with my policy. I have had it about a year with no issues, and my not at fault claim went through smoothly. I am the sole policy holder, and no, my family is not with Nationwide either... What could cause such a difference? Any ideas?""

maine insurance producer lookup

Monthly insurance for a Mustang?

I'm a 17 year old male and was wondering what the monthly insurance would be on a mustang? And if you know if a certain years model is the cheapest post that to please?

Do landlords usually have homeowner insurance?

Do landlord usually have homeowner insurance? Also is it true that most homeowner insurance have liability coverage? And if they took out a mortgage does the mortgage company require them to have some kind of homeowner insurance?

Anyone have a cheap insurance for a young driver?

I am 23 and I got my license dec 2013 Clean driving record so far I own a hyundai accent 2005 Anyone has a cheap or affordable insurance and is young too? I am in California. Orange County to be specific.

What is the best cat insurance in the uk?

What is the best cat insurance in the UK I can get for my 12 week old kitten?

Who has the best & affordable dental and medical insurance?

I need a lot of work on my teeth and I will know it will be expensive. I'm trying to find a good and affordable insurance for dental and medical. I would like my copay to be no more than 20% and my deductible to be no more than $3,000 & doctor visits no more than $30. Can anyone help me out? I'm also looking for not only me but my child as well.""

What is the cost of an insurance for a 250 cc scooter? (Louisiana)?

I know that there are many options, but a vague answer is fine. I just want to know if it will be around 100$ or 500$.""

Does anyone know the average insurance quotes for 2007 Nissan Altima in North Carolina?

What's the best way to insure I get 200 grams of protein per day?

My Dad used to do protein shakes but his doctor told him to get the protein through foods, not the shakes. Now the consultant at my gym says I need 215 grams of protein per day to keep my muscle mass and build further but it's not like I can have a steak at every meal. Any suggestions?""

Will my license hike my parents insurance?

I live in Florida with my parents, and I'm 19. I don't have a permit and want to get my license, but I'm not sure if it'll raise my parents' insurance rates. I won't own a car for at least a month or so, and I probably won't be driving theirs frequently, if at all. Will it affect their Progressive insurance at all? Thanks so much.""

Where can I find the best and affordable health insurance?

employer does not provide health insurance anymore. where can i find the best affordable health insurance that i pay for myself? thanks

How MUCH do you think I'd be paying for car insurance?

I'm an 18 year old female turning 19 on Oct 18th. I'm hoping to buy an 8- cylinder mustang GT ranging from the years 2000-2004, and I have taken driving classes with a high pass rate, I live in northern Virginia. How much do you think my car insurance would end up being? just asking for personal estimates!""

Lapse in coverage on auto insurance?

I let my coverage for my motorcycle lapse for 4 days. I am insured through progressive. How will this effect me?

Best dental insurance to get when needing restorative work?

in all honesty, i have terrible anxiety even when i think about going to the dentist. due to this, i have neglected my teeth and now i'm paying for it. i'm tired of worrying about my smile and just need to know the best insurance to help get me the smile i want.""

How to find cheapest car insurance for young drivers?

Car Insurance for a friend?

I have a friend (single mom of 2) and she needs to get cheap car insurance on her ford explore. She let it lapse for 6 months and now her loan company wants to repo her car, even though she has made every car payment. (she leases her car)...(kinda like rent to own) She got a quote from my agent, but it was going to be way too much for her. I am guessing since she still owes on the car she has to have full coverage. And can only afford less than $100.00 a month on it. She is a renter, she is going to school, and has bad credit. Are there any companies out there that she can get a good deal or at least get coverage for 6 months and re-apply with a better company?? The only one I have found out there was the general.com. And they seem to be ok...but I don't know what other options she has. Thanks for reading this!! 10 points to the best answer!!""

""How much does a car insurance quote cost?If u get one u wont get emails from them,and stuff in the mail,will u""

How much does a car insurance quote cost?If u get one u wont get emails from them,and stuff in the mail,will u""

Which make and model of car/SUV is the cheapest on auto insurance?

I need a new car, but I don't want to pay a lot for auto insurance. Right now I have a Cavalier (hate it, by the way) and because it is a Z24 it raised the insurance premium. I just wondered if there are certain makes of cars that are usually cheaper on auto insurance. Anyone know?""

Which company has the best renters insurance in terms of service and price?

I'm looking for a renters insurance company that is not expensive and has knowledgeable and cordial employees. Is not eager to deny claims and has an extensive policy. If you found one that covers breakage of your belongings due to accident or use by you, let me know. I'm not so sure if those types of policies exist.""

I need help finding affordable health insurance for my family?

My husband has a job currently that offers health insurance for us, BCBS of NC great insurance but his job doesn't pay enough for us to survive now that we have a new baby. He is switching to a driving job that pays a little more so we can survive and pay some more bills, so we have decided to try to buy our own health insurance with this new job. Things are very tight with money with me being a stay at home mom to a new baby boy and a toddler so I need very affordable health insurance for my husband and myself. My kids are covered by medicaid so I do not need to buy it for them. I do not qualify for medicaid so I have to buy insurance for myself and my husband. Any suggestions of where to look? Any help would be greatly appreciated.""

""I have been married for nearly 20 years in california, but my husband and I were separated after only one year?""

What laws are there for spousal support in a legal separation and what medical benefits am I entitled to, he says we need to stay married because he is a teacher and I will not qualify for health benefits if we file a legal separation or divorce. I know he gets the head of household tax break, but isn't there a bigger break on spousal support. As I said he is a teacher and I am permanently disabled. We live in the state of California. Thanks for any suggestions on this matter. Right now i have a PPO insurance with good benefits. It is the support that is lacking, And no I am not even looking for my fair share I just want a little closer to fair on support. I live way below the poverty level.""

Do you pay for motorcycle insurance all year round?

I have my M1 and am taking the m2 course in may but I will not be riding by myself until June. The insurance companies want 4600$ a year (18 male,Ontario). Do I still pay 4600$ for the remaining few months I can ride or does that cover me until June o next year? Someone please explain. Thanks""

Car insurance question?

I recently passed my test, and was looking at car insurance quotes and they're all pretty expensive. I was wondering if I were to just wait until I'm about 23 or 24 before I purchase a car, would the insurance be cheaper, even if I didn't have any driving experience? Thanks in advance.""

How much would car insurance be for a new driver and a crappy car?

I got my liscense 2 months ago and have been saving for a cheap car on Craigslist; around $1500. I need to know how much I would have to pay annually for car insurance for like a mid-90's, 150K miles Nissan/Volvo.""

Pickup Truck insurance at age 18?

I am 18 and I want to get a Nissan Navara. I have got a quote for the non-commercial versions eg le, se and xe for 1990 which is fine, but I cant get an online quote for the D22 version. Its a 2005 D22 Navara di. It says I have to ring them as they cant give me an online quote. Does anyone know if this model can be insured on normal car insurance as I am under 21 and it will be very difficult and expensive to get commercial or van insurance.""

What would health care cost if NOBODY had insurance?

I was reading about how doctors are now rating insurance companies, and one figure that stuck in my head was $210 BILLION wasted anually on excessive administrative costs. Not administration, UNNECESSARY administration. They want to cut out red tape, well, why not cut out insurance altogether? What would health care cost if NOBODY had insurance, and had to pay for everything out of pocket? I suspect that patients would start paying a lot more attention to their bills, doctors would have to start competing, and costs would plummet. Shoot, there'd be at least $210 billion a year more available! There's mention of one doctor who accepts a flat yearly rate, and doesn't accept insurance. Would this really be such a terrible way to do things? Letting doctors and patients decide what's fair, instead of insurance companies and the government? We could let people buy catastrophic insurance, but not general health funds like we have now. Could it work?""

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https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/beat-my-insurance-quote-freda-conrad/"

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justplainkimmi · 6 years ago

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The Good and the Bad of PPC Auto-Optimization Features: A #PPCChat Recap

On June 26, 2018, I hosted a #PPCChat discussion about using automatic optimization features in PPC (such as CPA bidding or the “optimize” ad rotation setting).

#PPCChat is a weekly Twitter chat that occurs every Tuesday at 12 PM ET, touching on a wide range of topics related to PPC.

Throughout the conversation, a number of industry folks offered some great insight into when to use automation, when to avoid it, and how to approach testing it. Here’s a recap of highlights from the discussion.

Almost Everyone Uses Automation

Out of 34 respondents, only 3% said they never use automation. While respondents leaned toward using auto-optimization features with caution, most were willing to embrace them on some level.

Q1 Do you use automation features in your PPC management? #ppcchat

— Timothy Jensen (@timothyjjensen) June 26, 2018

Which Automation Features Work Well, and Which Work Poorly?

Responses covered a wide range of opinions on which automation features work well and which ones individuals were less likely to trust. Ultimately, the varying experiences here point to the fact that no two accounts are the same, and what works for one client won’t necessarily work for another. In general, there was some consensus that Facebook’s bid optimization features tend to be better than other platforms.

A2: It is interesting to me how much we all just let FB do the auto bidding pretty much without too much questioning, but generally not the same attitude on AdWords.#ppcchat

— Julie F Bacchini (@NeptuneMoon) June 26, 2018

A3: Don’t know if this counts but I’ve never had any luck with dynamic display and think they look awful! Very much for the lazy/uninformed in my opinion. I think it’s important to have a certain level of control. The “set it and forget it” mindset is ALWAYS BAD #ppcchat

— Mark Gustafson (@markpgus) June 26, 2018

A4: If it comes to running basic algorithms based on data, then all of them equally. Once we get into the predictive stuff, then I trust those with the best data. E.g.,for optimizing to demographics, I trust FB more than Google because much better data. #ppcchat

— Kirk Williams (@PPCKirk) June 26, 2018

A4. I know this sort of a cop out answer but my trust in the platform depends on the client. There's just certain accounts I trust to hold the reigns based on historical data. Whether that's AW, FB or LI. BUT – if I had to choose one then Facebook. #ppcchat

— Tim Halloran (@timmhalloran) June 26, 2018

Accurate Data & Sufficient Data Are Crucial

In order for automation to work properly, sufficient volume is necessary. While the ideal number of conversions varies by platform, you should be aware of thresholds and be cautious about applying automated bidding features in low volume campaigns.

In addition, the accuracy of data is also vital for proper performance. Since automated bidding works from a raw conversion count, if conversions were miscounted for some reason, performance will be thrown off.

Definitely. Limited data or bad data is a kiss of death. Which is I'm skeptical of all these AI & Machine Learning tools. #ppcchat

— JD Prater (@jdprater) June 26, 2018

Cautions for Using Automation

You should never just mindlessly turn on automation in your campaigns without a background understanding of how it works in a particular platform and how it is likely to play with your particular account. Auto-optimization features should never be treated with a set-it-and-forget-it mentality. They’re here to help you do your job better as a PPC manager, but changes can happen quickly, and you still need to be monitoring performance closely. Participants had several words of warning for using automation.

I've learned to be cautious with new tools, like new bidding strategies. For example, ROAS bidding works well now, but was horrible when it was first introduced. #ppcchat https://t.co/1akG8lNSyv

— Martin Roettgerding (@bloomarty) June 26, 2018

A6: You need to know your stuff! Automation is NOT an easy solution that takes no knowledge or talent. Having a deep understandjng on PPC (manual strategies) really is important even if you end up relying on automation. You need to know WHAT the strategy does! #ppcchat

— Mark Gustafson (@markpgus) June 26, 2018

What’s Next?

We ended the discussion by looking ahead to the future of automation. General predictions included a move away from manual settings, more actions taken behind a “black box,” and smarter integration of data.

A7 I hope I'm wrong, but I see platforms replacing some manual settings with automation, they're so sure the algos can do better job. I don't dispute that, but I still need settings to divine what's going on & explain to client #ppcchat

— Glenn Schmelzle (@heyglenns) June 26, 2018

A7. I know predictions and wish list are not the same, but I HOPE that the future of automation means more time for strategy because the algos are working more effectively. I FEAR it will mean more time spent determining why performance shifts, to explain it to clients. #ppcchat

— Emma Franks (@akaEmmaLouise) June 26, 2018

A7: Data will become the new currency for optimization as AI (machine learning and predictive analytics) are readily integrated into tools and platforms. #ppcchat

— Christi Olson (@ChristiJOlson) June 26, 2018

A7: #ppcchat the future analytic optimization IMO, especially when voice abilities come along, and rules that can be used across channels (ie video, search, social, etc)

— Jon Kagan (@JonKagan) June 26, 2018

What’s Your Take on Automation?

Overall, this topic generated some in-depth discussion from PPC professionals on the benefits, hazards, and future of automation in campaign management. Ultimately, PPC managers need to embrace the fact that automation is here to stay and will become more and more prevalent while knowing when to strike the balance with manual oversight.

What are your thoughts on auto-optimization features in PPC management? Continue the discussion in the comments below!

from http://bit.ly/2IDdOLm

#Facebook marketing

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linguisticaesthetics · 7 years ago

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i need to get my languages sorted for my CV but i have no clue what my levels really are?? like i just took the cambridge placement tests for german, french and spanish and got B2, A2 and C1

...i had them listed on my resume as A2, A1 and B2

#langblr #polyglot problems #tbh #how the flying fuck did i get to B2 in german that is the question #i took a few more to make sure and they all gave me B2

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whereshaylee-blog · 8 years ago

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So the last few days have been v fast paced! I had my placement test on Wednesday, and I’m in the a2 class which I’m finding v difficult! The teachers have told me to stay in this class tho as I am above a1 level, so this is a good challenge. So far we have learned about how to talk about our houses and rooms, a little about problems, what we do, how long we’ve been in Italy and is this our first time. So it’s hard but clearly v beneficial, I expect to be able to hold conversations by the end of the month, if I am confident. I have also made a few friends. A girl from Finland, Germany, and Holland! There are also people I have made friends with in my residence, a guy from India who I enjoy talking to, Antonio, from Sicily who is very smiley! And Gaia, an Italian girl at uni to become an Italian teacher to the English, very useful connection to have made! Everyone is very lovely here, ready to help you out if you have a problem. People here are caring. Tho they speak little English. Food is the obvious next topic. On Wednesday we all went out for pizza!! It was €5 for a massive, delicious pizza, we also drank Tuscan wine and got to know each other (the girls on the language course) the following day, Thursday, when we finished our 5 HOURS!!! Of Italian lessons for the day, me and venla went to get a focaccia which was delicious and then gelato. Omg it was the first proper gelato I’ve had and it’s insane. It’s frozen goo, I woke up this morning and my first thought was gelato. So that’s where I’m heading after this post! I have had some problems with plug sockets. I had been really relying on my laptop for my creative analysis poster submission on Monday, which contains most of my research materials and my charger doesn’t work with an adapter, in fact I think it’s broken, so I had to cancel going to Bologna today to look at rooms and rearrange so I could be sure to sort out my work. In the end it’s been fine and submitted, but I can’t use my laptop which is breaking my heart a little. I have started to develop an enjoyable routine. I get up early and make my coffee (I WISH they had filter coffee in Italy it’s all percolators which are so overly complicated!) then I go out and do errands in town within the stunning towering old fashioned Italian streets. This is literally the dream I think. Ciao!

#Italy #Siena #Erasmus #travel #student #weekly

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archivedchaosblog · 8 years ago

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Collision Handling: My battle with Mathematics, Logic and Implementation (2013)

In my second year at University (2011) studying Computer Science, I decided I’d start making a game. I’ve always intended to get into game design/development so I figured now that I was actually learning to program, I should put these skills into practice. Here is the very first screenshot I took of it:

Even at this point it was already clear that collision handling was relevant. I actually wrote some code for this to allow the player to move and jump around on this rectangle. However, the difference between handling the collisions of a player with a fully-developed level and one constant sized rectangle is colossal.

At first, Collision Handling and Collision Detection don’t seem like different things. I know certainly going into this project that my own reasoning was that as long as the player and everything in the level was represented by a rectangle, it should be fairly trivial to detect when these shapes are intersecting, especially when the engine I was using (as well as Java itself) featured a Rectangle.intersects() method for my convenience.

That’s the trap.

It’s not until you sit down to actually develop this interaction that you have the fatal conversation with yourself: “Okay, so if the rectangles intersect then… they should… actually, I don’t know what they should do.” It’s that moment you learn the difference between Collision Detection and Collision Handling.

Collision Detection, for the most part, is a simple calculation, even for complex shapes in multiple dimensions; it’s the Handling part that’s tricky. If two shapes are intersecting or are about to intersect, what steps do you take to make them

No-longer intersect?

Produce a satisfactory outcome for future interactions?

Allow me to briefly cover how this problem is generally handled most of the time. Observe the following diagram:

Rectangle A is attempting to move along the vector represented by the red arrow. If it does move to this position, it will intersect Shape B:

This collision has been detected, now to handle it. Traditionally, this will be handled in one of a few similar ways:

1.) "Rewind”

A2 is the result of handling the collision. In this method the shape is moved backward along it’s movement vector to a point where it no longer intersects. This has the problem of “freezing” the object upon collision. The only way for A to move at all is for it to move away from B, it can’t slide along the side of it. In this instance, if A were a player object and B were a wall, attempting to move Diagonally Up/Left would result in no movement. This type of solution is rarely ideal.

2.) “Fastest Escape”

In method 2, the result A2 is found by computing the smallest distance required to leave the intersecting shape. In this case, A2 is found by moving A to the bottom edge of B. This, for the most part, solves the problem of getting stuck against an object, as it allows Shape A to slide along Shape B in an attempt to move Diagonally Up/Left. You can see that if Shape A persisted in this direction its result would be movement directly to the left (the upwards movement would be cancelled), until it cleared Shape B. Despite these solutions’ popularity, they are fundamentally flawed. Observe the following:

In this instance Shape A is moving VERY fast. So fast, in fact, the system will not detect any collision before or after movement. At neither of these points in time is A intersecting B, thus, these shapes did not collide. Systems that use this methodology suffer from the limitation of being unable to handle fast-moving objects. To counteract this, many Systems run these physics calculations on a separate timer, often much faster than the actual graphics or logic ticks. In our latest example this would result in Shape A’s intersection with B being calculated at multiple points along its vector which, in this case, would probably detect and correctly solve the collision. If your Engine needs to support very fast objects, you increase the rate of this tick to make for more accurate collisions, at the cost of extra processor utilisation. If you are unlucky enough to be working in an environment that cannot facilitate this behaviour (by being either underpowered or limited technologically - working in a single-threaded environment, for example) then you cannot overcome this problem. Many years ago I asked a professional game developer how one may get around this problem. He told me that it could be solved using vector arithmetic. This makes sense, as vectors are continuous, not discrete, so theoretically one could use them to solve these collisions absolutely. As I was in my second year at university and had, at the time, already taken 2 or 3 mathematics papers featuring vectors, and their surrounding arithmetic, I figured I understood the mathematics enough to work out how to do this. I spent a long time thinking of different ways to achieve it; some ideas good, some bad. Eventually, the idea of how it would work formed in my head, as follows:

By testing for an intersection between A’s movement vector and each face of B, I could detect what face these shapes were going to collide along. I could then scale A’s movement vector appropriately to simulate a “collide-then-slide” result. It looks a bit counter-intuitive in this diagram as the result A2 isn’t actually touching any shapes. You have to remember that, in this instance, A’s movement vector is HUGE. If this were a game, A would be moving many times it’s own size per frame, which is a very high speed. This interaction represents, in-between frames, A colliding with B, then sliding off its bottom edge.

However, I immediately started to run into problems, mostly in the form of counter-examples breaking my logic. For starters, where does A’s movement vector even project from? It’s clear in this case that it should come from the top left corner, but if it were travelling Up-Right, the result would not be accurate. I decided this vector should project from all vertices in the shape, since you can’t really collide edge-to-edge, right? If two shapes are colliding at least one of them has to be Vertex-to-edge. Wrong. I quickly thought of this counter-example:

If Shape A were significantly bigger than B, it could move straight past it without any of its vertices ever colliding with an edge on B. I toyed around with projecting A’s movement vector backwards from B, but eventually realised that I needed to project both ways in order to guarantee a detection:

Now the system would be able to detect any collision between any shape, and I should point out that at this point I was still working with Polygons, not just Axis-Aligned Rectangles. Eventually the vector projection onto arbitrary edges made things too complex, and I had to settle on the restriction of purely using Axis-Aligned Rectangles. I may make a post solely on AABBs and their use in physics simulations at some point.

Now the system was doing really great, but I was still running into a few issues, mainly corner cases (literally). I was having troubles dealing with corner-to-corner collisions. This was a problem that stumped me for months, and caused me to restart my thought process from the beginning a couple of times. Every time I hoped to simplify the system so that I needn’t deal with problems caused by the corners, but every time they would show up and start causing problems anyway.

The first problem seems trivial, but it becomes important:

What happens in this case? It is indeterminate which faces of B A is colliding with, but I didn’t want to make allowances in my algorithm for this specific case. I wanted it to be treated like every other collision – ultimately it didn’t matter which side it went along, I was happy just as long as it went along one of the sides.

In comes the trouble:

In this instance, all vertices in the system that return a collision will return a collision at length 0. However, we still have one that we want to pick as the “correct” result. The corner-to-corner collision at the top may pick the wrong side (as I had previously determined I didn’t care which side was picked in a corner-to-corner collision, just as long as a side was picked). In this scenario, the top-left corner of A and the top-right corner of B are colliding with each other (corner-to-corner collision), and the bottom-left corner of A is colliding with B’s right side. This is the telling factor; we want to make sure we only pick the result of a Corner-to-Corner collision if we have no other choice. So, in the algorithm, whenever a corner-to-corner collision occurs, we flag it as a “Corner” collision and add it to the results pool. When the results are sorted for choosing at the end of calculating, we look for the shortest non-corner collision; if no results are non-corner, then we just take the shortest in the list.

Now the system was doing great, it could handle collisions between any 2 objects in a stable manner, but in implementation a problem quickly arose. Say Shape A is travelling like this, into 2 shapes:

2 intersections are detected. It’s clear that the intersection with shape B is the shortest, so the algorithm picks that face to “slide” along. However, this produces an erroneous result:

Result A2 has slid along the right face of Shape B after computing a collision, but is now intersecting with Shape C. We can’t take the result from Shape C either, since that would result in a collision with Shape B. The solution? Good old fashioned recursion. We re-call the whole algorithm again but this time, instead of making the request with the original request vector, we give it the result of the collision with B, like so:

Since this result has been calculated from a collision with Shape B, we can be sure that any subsequent result of this vector will NOT intersect Shape B. This request does not intersect Shape B, so our intersection with Shape C is our only result, producing the following:

Which is the result we want, representing a collision with both shapes. This recursion stops when the requested vector is equal in length to the result vector (i.e. if we run this calculation one more time and no further collisions are detected).

That’s the algorithm in its entirety. It’s not a lot of code once it’s all worked out, but it’s taken me a long time to work out. I did originally do research into some pre-existing algorithms but never felt comfortable with them, and I didn’t feel like I truly understood them. This has been a great learning experience for me. It’s an algorithm I see myself using for all my 2D collision handling needs.

If you have any questions about this algorithm or would like to see some code implementations of it feel free to comment about it or message me. Although please note I wrote this post in 2013 😂

#Game Development #Game Physics #Physics #Algorithms #Vector Arithmetic

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