Official Civ4 S&T Off-Topic Thread

[Niccolo Edwards]

That wall of text is actually greatly appreciated (I like walls of text for some reason) and your answer was great.

Obviously sometimes you have to have characters who are on a different moral level from the POV of the story and/or are polarizing characters. I cannot deny that they can be (and often are) important in driving the plot.

Personally though if you're going to have polarizing characters I'd like to see different moral systems (or at least individual morals) forced into conflict, but forced together as mutual goals are the same. i.e. Group A has moral system A that conflicts with Group B's moral system B. Group C's moral system C though is in conflict with both moral system A and B. Thus Groups A and B are forced to work together which brings their moral systems into conflict, despite this moral system C is still the larger conflict between the two. If we consider moral systems A and B to be equal before the audience (both have positives and negatives to the audience's collective morals) then the conflict between the two is present despite the threat of moral system C. Thus, moral system C (the polarizing one) has forced A and B together and into conflict. I think forced conflict, while both sides try to create a solution (even if temporary and only to last as long as mutual goals are present) is far more intriguing then just conflict while both sides seek victory.

 

[CaterpillarKing]

As it stands, most moral conflicts in this sub-forum will be involving political ideologies. In most political systems there are various factions that, despite their differences, work together to fight against a common enemy, forming coalitions. I've noticed, though, that there is only so much a writer can do for that. At a certain point the writer can no longer control certain aspects to get the desired effects, and has to hope that the readers interact in a significant manner. The best current case for this would be Noyyau's story where the readers that interact do so in a manner that makes the story interesting. In a lot of stories the writer has to do a majority of the work, and in others the writer is more of a taxi driver, getting told where to go and finding the best way there. The latter is what leads to true conflict like what is seen in the real world. In the story "America: Write Your Own History", the original one, that was what happened. For most of it the people were involved, but not on an extreme degree. As soon as socialism was presented (and I threw a wrench into everything and helped to add to the chaos), everything began to swirl into conflict. People began to forge alliances they wouldn't have otherwise to fight for or against the rise of communism in America. Years after the story has ended, a discussion about the cause of the collapse of America can get extremely heated. That story is the extreme case of what can happen when two moral sides can get into conflict.

In a direct comment on what you're saying, for that to be achieved it would have to be steered properly by the author in an interactive story (which can drive away interest), would have to happen by pure luck, or the story would have to not be interactive.

Going off on a tangent, I've only just noticed how many stories are interactive in this forum. I think that may be one reason that interactivity has decreased, because there are so many things to interact with. A long time ago there was a higher AAR to IAAR ratio, leading to a higher proportion of people in IAARs. Now IAARs are more popular, leading to less involvement. The less involvement is also due to just a general decline in people on the forum. I've only recently come back actually. It's hard to believe that, at one point a few years ago I posted here 14 times a day. That's not an exaggeration either, that's what my post count was. That's how I was able to get to over six thousand votes in such a short time when veterans of the forum only have a couple thousand.

Anyways, this block was much more tangential than my last one, sorry about that. I've just noticed a few things as they've been changing over the course of the last two and a half years.

 

[Noyyau]

Sorry for my lack of updates in the last houple of weeks (just when interesting things are happening in the story, dammit), I've been quite busy.
I'll try to start moving things again as soon as possible.

 

[TheNoob]

I know I haven't written in a while; I haven't given up (like usual lol). The German I hosted last year flew in about a week ago and he's staying until the 29th. Still playing Civ (not my America story atm because that's kind of a play-per-update basis), but I just don't have the time to write

 

[Niccolo Edwards]

Me when my boss asks me to go to an airport and wait for thirteen hours because "We may have an issue regarding the [redacted]. Just go wait, I'll call you as soon as I can."

As it turns out "may" meant we absolutely have a (colossal) problem, someone is probably going to end up being sued for millions of dollars and we weren't informed (my firm doesn't deal with law suits outside of some settlement negotiation, but it's still probably something we should be informed/aware of). And "as soon as I can" turns out to be not very soon at all. To be fair he was busy (we all are and this is just going to screw us up even more) and I was at least able to have a phone conference with a few individuals to get something done while I waited.

So anyway I'm probably not going to be able to get online until at least Monday, until then enjoy the weekend.

 

[CaterpillarKing]

Has the crisis ended?

 

[Niccolo Edwards]

Right now it's a yes and no. We've talked most of the parties down, but there are still a few that won't listen to reason and all our meetings with the one's that even bother to show up feel rather like the Cold War where a single wrong word could probably send someone (followed shortly by everyone else) back on the warpath. I've only got a few more people that I need to chase down, then my job will be done and I'll hand it off to other people from my firm so they can wrap it up in a little bow for the other lawyers (who honestly should have dealt with it in the first place). My guess is that It'll be handed off to company's legal division and/or their regular firm by the end of the week. I'll be headed back to Europe to deal with some more of the fallout from Brexit.

 

[CaterpillarKing]

While it sounds nice to be able to travel, I imagine you don't get to experience a lot of the places you go to with all the work you have to do?

 

[TheNoob]

Ok question time. Would my save file for my America story still work if I add some graphics mods and the mods for South Africa and Australia for DoC?

 

[Niccolo Edwards]

It should, but don't quote me on that. I would make a copy of the civ application and test out the mods there before implementing them on the regular app.

 

[CaterpillarKing]

The graphics mod would probably work, but I doubt it for the South Africa and Australia mod because python files get changed. That's why save files are broken every time a new civ is added in DoC.

 

[TheNoob]

In other news my summer just got IMMEDIATELY busier due to my school just now finishing AP class lists and I have a metric ton of summer homework to do (yay AP Lang!).

And in other other news, tomorrow is the Alpena Symphony concert and I'm very excited mostly because one of the songs has two songs from Civ 4 in it. I don't remember hearing Coronation but Baba Yetu is fun.

 

[CaterpillarKing]

You still have summer? Wow. School started for me seven days ago. Also, I remember AP Lang days, it was pretty good actually.

 

[TheNoob]

My school doesn't start until September 6th

 

[Noyyau]

Summer is when I have to work more because people take vacations...

 

[Spirictum]

It has finally happened.

http://www.bbc.com/news/world-latin-america-37237513

If things were pretty crazy around here for some time already, now I can't even imagine how they will develop. I didn't like President Dilma, but this Impeachment process has put someone even worse then her as President. At least I hope they have learned a lesson: Don't ever trust in the Brazilian Democratic Movement Party. Dilma's party allied itself with the Democratic Movement Party some time ago and they even launched a coalition slate* ticket for Presidency in 2014 with Dilma as President (Worker's Party) and Michel Temer as VP (Brazilian Democratic Movement Party). Michel Temer politically backstabbed Dilma, which was an obvious course of action for the most corrupt party around here.

Now we have a President with less then 1% of popular approval.

Sorry for my prolonged absence, but many stuff has been happening around here lately, and my free time has dropped tremendously.

Glad to be posting here again
I hope I can get more free time in the near future


*I've searched for a word to express when two candidates to different political posts are presented together in a voting campaign. In our case both President and VP are elected together, so they must form this 'slate' google translator gave me. If I'm wrong please feel free to correct me.
**Thanks to Niccolo for the word 'ticket'

 

[Niccolo Edwards]

In the US it's called a 'ticket' the people vote for electors who have pledged to cast their electoral vote for a ticket of POTUS and VPOTUS (Clinton and Kaine for the Democratic Ticket and Trump and Pence for the Republican). I assume that's what you meant when you put it through Google Translate. If so I motion that we change the word 'ticket' to 'slate' because that would be wonderful.

 

[Spirictum]

In the US it's called a 'ticket' the people vote for electors who have pledged to cast their electoral vote for a ticket of POTUS and VPOTUS (Clinton and Kaine for the Democratic Ticket and Trump and Pence for the Republican). I assume that's what you meant when you put it through Google Translate. If so I motion that we change the word 'ticket' to 'slate' because that would be wonderful.

Thanks for the lesson Niccolo. I wonder from where Google gave me that translation

Here we call it chapa, the same word for where you fry stuff like meat (don't ask me the why of that )

 

[CaterpillarKing]

I'm sorry for being gone for so long. Being a senior in high school and having q million and onr responsibilities is very time consuming. I intend to return soon once some things get straightened up.

Sent from my SCH-I535 using Tapatalk

 

[TheNoob]

School for me starts tomorrow and I'm going to die