Welcome to Rapture!

Some random stuff I wrote since I was a kid.

Star Wars, 1977-1983

特地充值了Disney+完整学习一下Star Wars，不过不得不说剧情不是很有趣，那个死星被炸了又炸，实在是有点简单。

但想象力从现在的视角看也是不错的，要从1977年的视角看，简直神了。

Total War Rome II Tips

How can I serve Rome?

Though it’s unlikely that I will play through the whole campaign again, I still want to write down these tips that I wish I knew earlier. Some of these are based on playing Rome in the Grand Campaign but the philosophy of playing any faction should be similar.

Provincial Management

  1. The way I played provincial management is the same as how I played Shogun 2. That is to maximize commerce while keeping the public order and food supply afloat. I don’t think slaves, industry, culture and even technology are that useful in this game.
  2. You can build duplicate buildings in the same province but not in the same region.
  3. For provinces with at least three ports or three regions, especially those with Wine resource, I built as many Market Colonias, Trading Ports and Shops as possible.
  4. Because the food supply applies at the factional level, so I dedicated provinces with only one port or only two regions to food supply. Build Forum Piscarium (Fishing Port) and Latifundiums (Farms) as many as possible.
  5. When playing Rome, I usually pick a few provinces with good local auxillary units to put all my military buildings. Build as many Basilica of Mars as possible. Also build corresponding Practice Fileds even though I don’t think it’s that useful.
  6. If you are playing Rome, pick provinces with good auxiliary units for military buildings, like Hellas with Cretan archers, Aquitania and Celtica with Noble Horse, Phazania with African Elephants (African forest elephant, smallest of the three elephant species on the planet.) and Numidian Cavalry (ranged Cav). Check out the auxiliary map.
  7. Forums can only be built in the provincial capital region and they are more powerful than other buildings, I always try to build them as many as possible. Circus is a must because it brings most public order and allows me to maximize tax rate.
  8. Besides Circus, Delicatessen/Taberna/Forum Cuppedinis is a top prioity to keep food abundant. Additional Latifundiums (Farms) in minor settlements are also needed. Exempt tax for high negative food supply province when your faction is low on food.
  9. Cattle Trader/Slaughterhouse/Forum Boarium provides a good commerce output and Library/Archives/Scriptorium helps with technology development. The rest Forums are really not that useful in my way of play.
  10. Basilica of Jupiter have all good buffs. It increases wealth from all sources, helps with public order, and boosts Tax Harvesting Edict. Build one or two in minor settlements. I decide not to build any other type of Basilica because it hurts my brain to do all the calculation and I don’t see anything amazing happens. I am happy with the Jupiter.
  11. Sanitation buildings are really not that useful to me. It brings little benefit.

Politics and Houses

  1. Use the generals from other houses to increase their loyalties. Personally I think avoiding civil war is much more important than those buffs from influence. But it really depends on your play style, if you like beating the hell out of other houses, only use your own generals.
  2. One way to manage loyalty is to engineer some deaths for those with bad traits and are becoming house leaders. Charge them alone to the enemy.
  3. Don’t hire idle politician for other houses. It increases their influence. Just make them generals or admirals and let them do transport or patrol work.
  4. Hire candidates from your house and arrange marriage for them as soon as possible.
  5. Household are not that important. Except for those with global benefits, I didn’t even bother to put them on.

Agents

  1. Dignitaries decrease army upkeep or increase provincial tax rate. In the late game I use them only for increasing loyalty from generals.
  2. Champions train your army or increase provincial public order. They also increase provincial loyalty when they have a certain high-rank skill. I usually put them in provinces controlled by other houses after they rank up just for the loyalty.
  3. I never choose skills upgrades other than those related to the usage above.
  4. Spies have many useful skills but I mostly use them for scouting.
  5. I seldom use agents to counter other agents or use skills on other factions, because it is often more trouble than joy to me.

Army and Fleet

  1. Faction income determines your armies and fleets size. Always keep an eye out on the income balance. I once recruited multiple full-sized armies and marched out, only to be sneaked attacked in the back at Rome and lose half of my income. I had to go through disarmament and cut down half of my military and fight back.
  2. House of Conelia has half auxiliary upkeep so it is very powerful especially in the early game when you are short on coins. The rest factions and houses are really not that different. At least not as different as the Civlization series.
  3. Units from your faction are cheap to keep while the mercenary is cheap to hire but has high upkeep. You can hire and fire them fast.
  4. In the late game when your army is far from home, mercenary is a must.
  5. Army and fleet traditions are really not that important. I usually go with the ones that bring immediate benefits like increase campaign movement range and plus public order, which may be considered useless to some people.
  6. Shockingly I beat the game without using any of the fancy siege units or engines except basic ladder, ram and tower.
  7. The general skills are a little bit complicated and didn’t really bring much benefits. You can actually pick whatever you want. Second wind and group inspire can be useful combat skills. Plus ranks for new recruits can also be useful. You can disband the general and raise the army again at the military provinces.

Combat Tactics

  1. Spear man has high defense and sword man has high attack. They are the core of the army. Think of them as walls. Always try to flank the others to keep the effective contact size as much as possible.
  2. Circle your archers and shoot your enemies in the back is very effective and causes less friendly fire, but is very dangerous to your archers. That’s why mounted missile units are handy.
  3. Sneak around and charge your cavalry to enemies missile units, or to flank melee units in the back.
  4. Generals can die very fast.
  5. Ships are very dumb when they are squeezed together. So keep some space.
  6. Melee ships are much more effective than missile and artillery ships to me.

Final Words

  1. The order of technology really does not matter that much. It all depends on your play style.
  2. Choosing skills for army/fleet/agents/generals can be very tiring and brings little benefits. So I only choose those related to my play style and ignore others.
  3. Dipomacy is quite easy. Get trade agreements as more as you can. Use non-aggression pact to protect your rear. Military alliances and client states also count toward victory condition so use that.

Total War Rome II, 2013

花了差不多一周的时间，肝完了多年前遗憾没玩完的全战罗马2，还是熟悉的全战味道，这次带上了罗马这个有吸引力的背景，比上部幕府将军2更激情澎湃。

和幕府将军2比，有几点做到了同样水平，比如游戏的画面，在当年看还是很震撼的；游戏的配乐，依旧是买ost送游戏水平；游戏的文案也很好，玩起来仿佛在看历史书；这代兵种极其丰富，虽然实际大同小异但有探索的乐趣；最后就是我最喜欢的游戏UI了，这一个个个古埃及古希腊profile风的精致的小人简直是艺术品：

Total War Rome II UI

如果硬要说跟幕府将军2比少了点什么，就是时代限制没有火器，硬是少了个重要兵种所以少了些乐趣。

进步的地方，也是争议最大的地方，就是议会和内战了。相比于文明，全战的优势是战术，战略层面没什么深度，前中期该点的建筑点好，后期就是平推了（在论坛上学了个新词叫steam roll），不像文明要一直考虑地理布局，以及各种产出的平衡，所以这一代加入了议会系统，要在多个家族间争影响力，同时又不能让别人对你太不满，不然后期很容易国家一分为二从头再来。这样更接近史实，第一次玩还是觉得很新鲜的，不过玩久了发现idea很好，但有很多地方设计师明显没想明白，据说发售后还一直在调整玩法，而且这个系统和全站那种爽快平推的玩法有巨大冲突，全战流程过于长，到了后期玩家实力第一后还有很多地方要占，像我这种玩家就想赶紧结束，毕竟没什么实质挑战了，而这个系统到了后期有种强行给你加难度的感觉，有点harassing。

游戏发售时的性能稳定性和AI逻辑被很多人吐槽，还有罗马兵种比别人多一倍的设计，虽然可能符合史实，都对于选了其他国家的玩家而言很无语，游戏各种数值和加成展示的也不好，感觉不够透明，让玩家很难算明白。虽然有很多瑕疵，但瑕不掩瑜，借用网上看到的别人的评价，刚开始创新的时候，可能的确会短暂地劣于之前，但这样才能让继承了优点的后续作品达到一个新的台阶。抛去冗长的战略系统，罗马2的战术+文案UI+配乐已经很完美，就算只玩玩多人对战都值回票价。

★★★★☆

Cloister

Cloister, from Latin claustrum, “enclosure”, “an enclosed place”.

It separates the monks and nuns from the outside world of serfs and workmen. Provides a foretaste of Paradise.

This is the seclusion of the spiritual life, the vita comtemplativa.

The Flight Attendant S01, 2020

★★☆☆☆ 完全冲着看Penny去看的，演的真是歇斯底里，很符合这位演员在我心中形象。剧情有很多瑕疵，但如果只作为一部杀时间的片子看，那制作还是很精良的，Cassie虽然卖力过猛，但还是精彩的，Annie、Miranda、Megan、Shane也都很有特色。还有片中的男士们，有种Kaley大姐特地给自己安排了一圈帅哥的感觉。

7年后。。。

没想到我时隔7年后又（被迫）回到了tumblr。。。

今天可能是完美主义者附体，更可能是因为开始上班前比较闲，想用我的阿里云把博客搭个wordpress，从此不再纠结哪个平台更稳定。本来是个轻松惬意的事情，但没想到我从早上睁开眼到现在快凌晨足足踩了一天的坑：

  1. 国内的服务器不备案域名直接解析不上，之前还能偷偷用一阵子的
  2. 备案需要手拿身份证还要阿里云专用蓝色幕布拍照，我身份证不在身边
  3. 买国外服务器的话又得从头搭一遍环境
  4. Lofter正好在两个月前 偷偷下掉了导出服务 。只能把我tumblr和lofter的diff手动复制出来
  5. wordpress的tumblr import服务必须要用域名不能用ip，回到问题1

其实其他坑我都能理解，但4这个下掉导出服务我就非常奇怪了，为什么时隔多年后突发奇想下掉这个？是有bug还是刷流氓？我下意识去搜了下当年同样很火的点点网，果然网上全是哭诉平台下线，内容找不回来的人。很早以前也有别的博客平台这样。所以结论是国内的平台，就算有网易这样大厂背书，还是不怎么靠谱。

这样就更肯定了我自己搭一个想法，可是现在时间有限，折腾一天后只得出个结论，先将就在Tumblr写一写，有空了自己买一个境外服务器，先导入Tumblr，再把lofter的diff手动添加上去。

当初为了蹭国内轻博客火爆的热度，特地转移去了lofter，但其实想想还不如这个被贱卖的tumblr。好歹人家的导出没坏，wordpress买了后至少能迁去wordpress吧。

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A healthy man lives. A weak man dies. A sick man struggles. A wise man lies.

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传统游戏的目的，是在你花的这个钱当中，为你提供最大的乐趣。

社交游戏的目的，是在不气走你的情况下，为你提供最大的痛苦，然后让你用金钱把这些痛苦消除掉。

来自孟德尔。

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任天堂退出硬件厂商之日即退出游戏业界之时

岩田聪至今未食言，即使受到手机和平板冲击，任天堂依旧坚持不进入混乱的手游市场，维持着自己高质量娱乐向游戏的生产，或许很难突然反败为胜，但走上SEGA的道路是绝对不行的。

Ken Levine的梦想

同是UCG321游戏人Vol.SP里的一文《让游戏超越电影》，让我更加理解了《生化奇兵：无限》

《古墓丽影》的台前幕后

看了UCG321游戏人Vol.SP里《古墓丽影的重生之路》一文，不禁觉得水晶动力的可笑。

为了从老古墓丽影的阴影中蜕变，最初设定的故事竟然是黑暗恐怖性质的，这点从最终版结尾女皇的形象可以看出来，但还好得到了及时纠正。

不知道是不是真的，文章里说游戏最先确定的竟然是“概念”，所谓的生存和牺牲，然后花了几个月做了几个DEMO，其中就有著名的“绝望逃亡”片段，2011年E3展上震惊业界，但水晶动力口头上追求整作都保持这个片段的质量，实际上把它扔一边。整个游戏里也没几个这种镜头与解密的良好结合。

然后确定了游戏内容，即所谓“战斗时刻、移动时刻和解密部分”，又找了个不靠谱的作家（Rhianna Prachett）写剧情，然后才确定本来应该是最重要的战斗系统，最初设计的只有近战，后来其实就照搬了《神秘海域》。

整个游戏制作过程人员流动大，设计流程混乱，虽然文章是为了表达新劳拉诞生多么不容易，我也同意这是系列最强一作，但我只看到了整个设计组的无秩。3A大作的游戏玩法就那么几种，抄一抄不就可以了，竟然花了这么多时间精力作设计，最后其实还是一抄了事。