Lurker > tiornys

Both 9 and 10 have tracks that I like more than I like any track from 13. Both 9 and 10 also have tracks that I dislike much more than I dislike any track from 13 (13 is the only FF with 0 tracks I dislike). 10 has probably the strongest top set of tracks for me, but 13 has the strongest overall soundtrack.

FabIemaster posted...

Isn't Yu Yevon at least mentioned a few times in FFX? I mean surely I figured the final boss would be some souped up Ject but I fo remember them talking about him a few times in passing.

Yes. Not only is he mentioned, but you know before attacking Sin that Yu Yevon is the one who uses Sin as his armor.

Sweet. It's nice to see more adaptations like this actually happening.

That's a pretty good take on Necron. For me IX is middle of the pack because I dislike how slowly combat runs and I'm not a fan of having all ability learning tied to wearing specific equipment.

In related news, a Swiss physicist has recently been publishing papers arguing that we should formulate the laws of physics in a math system that disallows numbers with infinite digits. Here's an article about it:

https://www.quantamagazine.org/does-time-really-flow-new-clues-come-from-a-century-old-approach-to-math-20200407/

This number system looks to me like it would be a great match for a discrete interpretation of space-time.

As I understand it, this is fundamentally a formal way of generating a discrete/quantized space-time (as opposed to a continuous one) that obeys/generates discrete versions of the key formulas that need to be observed for any successful attempt at unifying general relativity with quantum physics. The idea of making space discrete is not new, but I believe this is the most abstract attempt at implementing the idea since there is no assumption about what is fundamental. The only assumption is that whatever is fundamental is evolving via repeated iterations of some rule for evolution.

If that's correct, it's basically a more generalized form of every previous, serious attempt at unification, including string theory, quantum loop gravity, etc. That is, you should be able to build string theory within this framework, and you should be able to build quantum loop gravity within this framework, and the same for the other major attempts at unification. The advantage is that by being more general, it lets us explore more (all?) of the potential "elegant unification" formulations at once, instead of being locked into a portion of the "formulation space" by whatever starting assumptions are used (e.g. the strings in string theory or the loops in quantum loop gravity).

A possible analogy is that it's trying to be the underpinning language of attempts at proving elegant unification in the same way that set theory might be thought of as the underpinning language of mathematical proofs.

MedeaLysistrata posted...

Graph theory already uses a concept of beside-ness, so it doesnt do away with space

No. When we visualize graphs, we see them as connected in space, because that's how our brains work, but a graph can represent any sort of relationship between things. Space is not inherent to the idea of a graph.

emblem boy posted...

Is this generally being received well within the physics community or whatever?

One of the better critiques I've seen is this (from r/kromem on r/physics):

Correct me if I'm wrong, but while he addresses multiple invariances, the model doesn't address CPT symmetries at all, right? I think he's going to have a real problem adding it in with his monograph approach (as well as GHZ entanglement states).
He's modeling binary relationships very well using what's essentially a binary tree, but there are relationship constraints along the lines of "pick two out of three" that I have a hard time seeing him model with this approach, and conveniently those relationships are absent.

I know enough to have a layman's understanding of CPT symmetries, but not nearly enough to try to evaluate whether this poster is right about how hard they will be to model with this approach. However, I will say that Wolfram has asserted at least one "trio" coming out of the model: space-like relations vs. time-like relations vs. branchlike relations. Also, since time is one of the fundamental relations in the model, CP could potentially be a pair that is impacted by time-like relations. And, if you look at the example graphs grown by iterating rules, you can see that some of them exhibit high level three-fold symmetry, so it's not impossible to get "threes" out of this approach.

So I'm not convinced this is an intractable problem, but at least it's a critique of the model itself instead of a critique/dismissal of Wolfram like 90% of the reddit comments.

Assuming his assertions about what naturally falls out of the framework hold up in a formal sense, it looks like a very promising approach, because he claims this framework generates key equations that underlie both quantum physics and general relativity. He also claims that it generates a formal notion of what time is, provides a concrete basis for quantum physics, and offers a potential explanation for some key cosmological issues like dark matter, dark energy, and the homogeneity of the observable universe--that is, he claims that several of the most intractable problems of the past 50 years or so are solved by this model. Which means that either this is a too-good-to-be-true crackpot theory that won't hold up formally, or a model that will give a strong push to theoretical physics.

I can see why he's excited.

BlazinBlue88 posted...

It's definitely a show you need to rewatch a few times in order to fully understand what's going on.

Agreed. I got so much more out of Lain on my second time watching through it.

Stormlight Archive

Counterpoint (ignore the politics, pay attention to the women foreground or background): https://youtu.be/NzDhm808oU4

You should feel like you're missing something. Because you're definitely missing something. Stay with it.

lightwarrior78 posted...

With every passing day I get more serious about how everyone that goes "lives over economy at all costs" should have all entertainment internet services blocked. See how well their resolve lasts when quarantine doesn't involve infinte entertianment beamed into your home.

I don't think most of the experts recommending social distancing are thinking "lives over economy at all costs". They're thinking that we can try to minimize the loss of lives, which unfortunately damages the economy, or we can not do anything and have massive amounts of illness and loss of lives which also damages the economy.

I agree we can't stay this way forever, but the choice is not simply lives vs. economy.

Checkmate is a scenario where the King will be captured no matter what you do. Stalemate is a scenario where the King will be captured if he does something, but not if he does nothing. So probably the logic behind the draw is that he will choose to do nothing and therefore the game can no longer advance.

WizardPowers posted...

Interesting

So in like a legit chess tournament, what happens when there is a stalemate vs a draw?

A stalemate is a draw. A draw is not necessarily a stalemate. Same principle as "nickle" and "coin".

Just to clarify a possibly relevant point: "stalemate" is a type of draw characterized by one side having no legal moves on their turn without being in check. There are other ways to draw in chess, including 3-fold repetition of position and the 50 move rule. These other draws are not considered "stalemate".

For chess fans:
https://youtu.be/25QMIwhklPw

serious version has been up for a couple of months: https://youtu.be/k1SCXb2WA2U

TheLastHero posted...

They still have grinding and increasing stats from combat which probably isn't what TC is asking for.

I mean, this is fundamental to the concept of being an RPG. If the character isn't progressing in some fashion, you're in a different genre.

DuranOfForcena posted...

i'd say they are both subtypes or at least derivatives of sword and sorcery fantasy

Nah. Tolkein founded modern fantasy, so all of the other subgenres are derivative from epic/high fantasy.

DuranOfForcena posted...

well i guess i'm gonna assume TC meant swords and sorcery type fantasy given the two examples

LotR is epic fantasy, whereas Harry Potter is portal fantasy edging into urban fantasy territory. Neither is S&S fantasy (although Willow is).

What they probably want are fantasy movies that don't clearly fall into some other archetype (so, not horror, not sci-fi/space opera, not superhero, etc.), and for that I'd say The Princess Bride.

Most SaGa games don't use levels. Different races have different forms of advancement, things like random stat increases and ability learning, absorbing monsters, transforming into different monsters, or getting (extra) stats based on equipment.

Yes.

Duncanwii posted...

Infinity War is better than Endgame anyway.

That's a reasonable opinion. The main point is that superhero movies are fantasy movies.

DuranOfForcena posted...

fantasy is a pretty broad genre tbh. this could include a lot of movies you might not think are fantasy at first consideration. or do you mean specifically like "swords and sorcery" type fantasy?

This. Because my first thought here is "Avengers: Endgame". Although on slightly more reflection I'm leaning towards "Inception".

inloveanddeath0 posted...

Investing some is the only smart option

This, barring a corner case like having 100k+ of high interest rate debt.

The real answer is that you should try to keep at least a week's worth of food stocked at all times. Don't do it for covid-19, do it because it's good general practice.

gna647 posted...

FFX

wasnt auron a spirit the whole time or some shit like that

Yes.

I agree with X having my favorite twists in the series, though I do like the twist in VIII too.

"Minor" is a catch all term, so it's not going to tell you anything about the ages of those in the material he got prosecuted for.

If you want to get good at strategy games in general (as opposed to one or two specific games), then you need to get good at the common element: strategy. And the best way to do that is to study it from a wide variety of angles. Read books or articles on strategy--since you're a gamer I recommend Sirlin's Playing to Win, freely available online: http://www.sirlin.net/ptw. Play strategy board games, whether classics like Chess and Go or newer ones like Terraforming Mars. Study strategy games--easiest with classics that have tons of books written, but many modern games have articles written about them. Play and study strategy card games--Magic the Gathering has a large body of strategy articles available online. Study classic works on strategy like Sun Tsu's Art of War or von Clauswitz's On War. Study modern works on business strategy. Take whatever you pick up back to FE or Vance Wars and see what you can apply. And then after you've done that a while go back and re-study whatever you studied because you're going to pick up more things after having more experience.

Speaking of which, I'm going to go re-read Playing to Win. It's been a while.

Lairen posted...

The ginmick of leveling all your party up to use them in the final dungeon just adds to grinding so its not really good to begon with.

Not necessary. You can split your main party across the three parties and use them as "babysitters". The lower level characters won't be all that much lower thanks to level averaging so they'll still be able to contribute, and they'll gain levels fast in the first few areas of the final dungeon.

TarElessar posted...

Would anyone actually care if I typed up something about particle physics or exoplanets or something related for this thread?

Sounds interesting to me.

philsov posted...

In chapters 11-13, yes. Chapter 1-10 are drinking bird X. Insufficient redemption, imo.

Nah. Chapters 1-2, maybe 3, yes. Once you're into chapter 4 there's plenty of scope for strategy and tactics to make a big difference in combat.

philsov posted...

Kefka's Tower is probably my favorite dungeon in the whole series. It forces you to use 3 parties who each fight different bosses and flip switches to allow each group to converge at the final boss.

This I can agree with wholeheartedly.

Lairen posted...

You get a charm that removes all random encounters. You get two relocs that let one character attack 8 times. You get a 1 mp cost relic and a double cast relic.

Theres so much broken stuff in this game. Tools make the beginning of the game easy. Gau had some easy good rages. Eveyone can cast magic.

Theres too much strong s*** in the game.

Tastes are odd. Part of why I like XIII so much is because it doesn't have anything broken like this--if you want to excel at combat you have to get good at strategy and execution. But part of why I like VI (and Tactics) so much is precisely because there are so many broken and breakable things.

What's your definition of "strategic"?

Tbf XIII really does have an excellent combat system. Anyone thinking "all you do is mash x" bought into the meme too hard.

Personally I enjoyed all of the gimmicks in VI that p-m is complaining about. Having multiple parties in play at once was awesome.

Jeff AKA Snoopy posted...

Is Balthier worth keeping around as a main party member?

Do you like party members with power levels comparable to TG Cid?

Ramza does great at Ninja, of course, but it's notable that he also makes an excellent Samurai. Samurai is one of the jobs that lets him capitalize on having male PA and female MA. I like to train him on Iaido and set it secondary in Ubersquire since that's a build that only he can really pull off, whereas any generic male makes a great Ninja/Monk.

Jeff AKA Snoopy posted...

I have a Chemist/Knight that can Rend stuff with Guns I assume?

Yep. That's a classic combo.