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Wednesday, December 26, 2007

Looking for a new computer

Late night by Selva Morales from flickr (CC-NC)
Because my hatred towards my Macbook reached unprecedented level, and I didn't take my old desktop with me to London, I' looking for a new computer. I probably won't be buying it for another few weeks, but here's a rough spec/wishlist (which reads a lot like "why Macbook sucks" list):

  • The options are - one good laptop for work+home, or shitty laptop at work + good desktop at home. Right now I think a good all-purpose laptop would be a better solution.
  • At least 2GB RAM, 4GB even better. That's really non-negotiable, computers with less than that are good for little more than web browsing.
  • Probably dual boot Ubuntu (for 90% of normal use)/XP (for occasional gaming/compatibility testing). I've seen Vista and I don't like it. Most laptops these days come with Vista by default, but I can always wipe it out.
  • At least 1440x900 or even better 1680x1050. Macbook resolution of 1280x800 is painful.
  • I don't really care about screen size that much, resolution is much more important. 17-inch screen usually means bigger keyboard and that's a nice thing to have, even if 15-inch screen with good resolution is all right.
  • I would like to play something more recent than Quake 3, so integrated GPU is completely out of a question. 8600M GT with 256MB memory would certainly be nice. Something somewhat less powerful is probably going to be fine too.
  • 160/200 GB disk would be nice for dual boot system, 5400 rpm is good enough on Linux as it has really awesome I/O caching unlike OSX. I'm not sure about XP.
  • I don't remember the last time I've seen a CPU-bound program, vast majority being limited by memory or I/O or GPU. So Intel Core 2 Duo 2.0 GHz or its moral equivalent by AMD should be just fine.
  • At least 3 USB ports, with 4 or more points scoring extra points.
  • DVD burner and real DVD drive (not annoying slit like in Macbook) would be a big plus.
  • I woudn't care if it was a desktop but for a laptop 3-year guarantee is pretty much necessary.

Monday, December 24, 2007

Javascript version of jrpg

I have just written a very small Javascript version of jrpg, which can be accessed here:



If you want to try it out, you will need a decent browser like Firefox 2, and Japanese fonts. It might work with other browsers, but I haven't done any testing yet. Just like in pygame version you can move around using arrow keys, and if they don't work by using numeric keyboard with numlock on. Battles are fought by keyboard and enter key.

The game is a very small demo, allowing you to only go around a very small map, collecting coins and fighting hiragana demons. Most of the cool features from the full pygame version are not implemented, so if you haven't seen it yet go ahead and download it. I did it because I wanted to see what's possible with pure Javascript+CSS, and relearn modern Javascript.

Things I learned from the experience:
  • I really like jQuery. Mixing DOM and jQuery operations could be made somewhat easier, but even without that jQuery really greatly improves the code.
  • Declarative specifications of presentation and semi-declarative specifications of behaviour are extremely convenient way of creating user interfaces. They definitely beat pygame in convenience.
  • Having fully powerful layout engine, and font engine is a great improvement over pygame.
  • Javascript's OO system is quite nice to use in spite of being so different from other OO systems. Definitely beats Java's.
  • Functional programming in Javascript is possible, but much more painful than in any other language I know due to its strictly C-like syntax, except for the languages which do not support functional programming at all like Python, Java, or Prolog. It would be nice if future version of Javascript at least introduced implicit return, and renamed function to fun. Compare Javascript foo.map(function(x){return x+1}) with hypothetical improved Javascript foo.map(fun(x){x+1}) and Ruby foo.map{|x| x+1}. Bad syntax discourages using high order function a lot, and creating your own high order functions even more.
  • Destructuring assignment is an awesome feature that is not normally noticed when it's there, but it hurts a lot when it's missing.
  • Lack of string interpolation makes string building code look like crap.
  • Firebug is even more awesome than I thought.
I'm not sure how far I'd like to go with the experiment. I don't see any reasons why jrpg couldn't be reimplemented in Javascript+CSS, and it would definitely expand the possibilities, especially with displaying messages. On the other hand performance might be much worse than pygame version (or not), and standalone application is in many ways more convenient than a web-based one (fonts can be bundled, no browser upgrade needed).

Wednesday, December 19, 2007

My Macbook died

Apple Evolution-Sharple by atomicshark from flickr (CC-NC-SA)
Hard drive in my Macbook died. One of the most annoying things about laptops is that there's no way of fixing them on your own, even if it's something trivial like replacing a hard drive with a new one. I'm going to see how good Apple customer support really is.

Frankly I have been disappointed by pretty much everything Apple. Their hardware is underpowered relative to price, comes in weird configurations, and doesn't even look that pretty after some use because it's so easily scratchable. For example Macbooks don't have a real GPU, but they have a totally useless FireWire port instead of a third USB. Even iPods which seem to be the most popular Apple product all come with crappy earphones and no USB port.

Apple software also ranges from very bad like Safari (why couldn't they simply bundle reskinned Firefox ?) through really horrible like OS X to iTunes which is able to define its own category of suckiness way beyond any other program I know. I haven't ever touched iPhone and I do not intend to, so I'm not going to say anything about it. The only piece of Mac software that I actually liked was TextMate, which obviously wasn't created by Apple. If it was it would be an AppleScript Editor.

Basically Apple sucks and no amount of TextMate bundles and "cool" marketing are going to change that.

Wednesday, December 05, 2007

Civilization II

Silly Telly by Julianne Gentile from flickr (CC-BY)

Because the damn Macbook comes with integrated GPU instead of even a very cheap real one I can only play very old games on it. So I'm kinda going through the old titles, at least until I can get a decent box.

I remember playing 4X games like Civilization, Civilization II, Colonization (about which I wrote some time ago), Master of Magic, and Freeciv a lot when I was younger. Now that I look at them again the original Civilization seems rather unplayable due to VGA graphics, and as the gameplay isn't much different I tried Civilization II.

The first thing I noticed is what a bunch of lies the unit statistics are. You see - in the original Civilization units had attack and defense points. In Civilization II they wanted to keep these points essentially unchanged so it would look familiar to the player base, but to rebalance the game by changing their meanings. So they introduced hit points and firepower. A quick math shows that the effective attack and defense ratings follow these rules:

effective attack = attack × firepower × hitpoints
effective defense = defense × firepower × hitpoints

Here's a full table of units, ordered by more or less their battle power.




NameEffective attackEffective defenseNominal attackNominal defenseFirepowerHitpoints
Battleship9696121224
Nuclear Missle99099011
AEGIS Cruiser48488823
Howitzer721212223
Carrier8721924
Submarine601210223
Cruiser36366623
Stealth Bomber561214322
Cruise Missle60020031
Bomber48412122
Helicopter401210322
Armor301510513
Artillery40410122
Stealth Fighter32128322
Mechanized Infantry18186613
Marines16108512
Fighter1684222
Ironclad12124413
Destroyer12124413
Cavalry1668312
Paratroopers1286412
Alpine Troops10105512
Cannon1628112
Riflemen1085412
Partisans884412
Fanatics884412
Dragoons1045212
Frigate844212
Musketeers663312
Transport090313
Catapult616111
Crusaders515111
Legion424211
Knights424211
Elephant414111
Archers323211
Chariot313111
Galleon040212
Engineers040212
Horsemen212111
Caravel212111
Pikemen121211
Phalanx121211
Warriors111111
Trireme111111
Settlers020112
Freight010111
Explorer010111
Caravan010111
Spy000011
Diplomat000011


So a cruise missle with nominal attack of 20 (effective 60) usually won't be able to take carrier of nominal defense 9 (effective 72), let alone a Battleship of nominal defense 12 (effective 96), even though by the original rules it should sink both without any trouble. On the other hand Ironclads at 12/12 (nominal 3/3) will easily take down every single land unit from their era, what every Civilization II player probably knows - but it was definitely not so in the original Civilization.

This isn't that bad now that I know it, but I feel so cheated. I remember playing Civilization II so many times while believing in the official attack and defense strengths, and wondering why I'm so lucky or unlucky (depending on circumstances).

When it comes to cheating, Civilization II does plenty of it. First, computer players totally ignore the fog of war. That's especially annoying when playing WW2 scenario, because their submarines are invisible and can sink your ships easily, but your submarines have big bullseyes on them. In the real game AI would be totally exterminated by the time submarines are invented of course.

Also computer players pay less for production and city growth (depending on difficulty level), don't suffer from the annoying 50% production switch penalty, and cheat in many other ways. Of course all that is understandable - the AI is so horrible compared to recent games it had to massively cheat to be any challenge.

But let's leave the question of cheating, and concentrate on gameplay. Unlike Freeciv which requires a very specific strategy (smallpoxing + We Love the Consul) to have any chance, Civilization II is so simple that a wide range of strategies lead to victory. Unless you're very unlucky early in game it's difficult not to win. The simplest strategy is plenty of settlers for expansion (and later roads/irigation), Republic, and as much spent on research as possible. Easy victory can be achieved by building Marco Polo's Embassy, which costs only 200 and lets you exchange technology with all computer players. This lets you get ten technologies by giving five players only two technologies each. This is normally a game winning event. Wonders which reduce unhappiness are also very useful and you should get them all.

It's often easier to simply buy other civilizations' cities and units than try to conquer them. An unfortunate thing about conquest is that it kills large part of the population and destroys many city impovements, and bribery lets you avoid it. You can also steal technologies with diplomats/spies. Normally there's no point bothering with sabotage.

Armies are expensive, so it's usually cheapest to connect all your cities with roads and railroads and have only a few units which you can move wherever they're needed quickly. AI is totally incapable of performing any serious offensive so you can usually defend yourself without too much trouble. Conquest is somewhat more difficult because AI cities tend to have plenty of armies inside (which just sit there doing nothing). Diplomats/Spies are one easy way of conquering cities. Ironclads/Cruisers are another very effective way - just kill everybody inside with naval bombardment and then transport some land unit to take the city, or Paratroop one if you have Paratroopers. Ironclad's effective attack strength of 12 can easily handle most fortified units of the era, and naval attacks apparently ignore City Walls. Cruiser's effective attack of 36 does the same trick in the later era. One more thing - naval units defending cities have firepower reduced to one. This halves effective defense of Cruisers, AEGIS Cruisers, Carriers, Battleships, and Submarines, but does not affect other ships like Ironclads, Destroyers, and Transports which already have firepower one. So it's not such a big deal.

Consul's Day apparently works in Civilization II, but it makes sense to refrain from using it because it becomes just soo damn easy. For people who don't know it - in Republic/Democracy if over 50% of citizens are happy and nobody is unhappy, a city starts growing 1 population a turn. Just max luxury rate for a couple of turn and reassign some people to Elvis roles until you get that in every city. It's just way too easy.

I could go on talking about strategy but the game is basically so easy that you should have absolutely no trouble winning it. Overall if you feel nostalgic and don't want too much of a challenge, go for it !