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grandalt posted:Well, Exalt is Cobra. Excellent. It fits their actions in game.
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Nov 10, 2014 03:27
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Speedball posted:It still hasn't even really united now, or else we'd have a lot more funding!
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Nov 10, 2014 04:33
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JT Jag posted:"So, yeah, aliens are invading. But then again, we promised to cut the budget, and I'm pretty sure my primary opponent will spin this as foreign aid during my re-election campaign, and no one likes that. How about the US gives the same amount of money a month to X-Com as it would take to build a single fighter jet? Sound good?" Yeah, yeah that's pretty much HumanPolitics.txt. Because the politician has to plan for the world not ending, and if the world does not end, then he has to make sure he's not doing something that won't get him re-elected. Because, at the end of the day, that's all he's there for.
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Nov 10, 2014 04:51
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RickVoid posted:Yeah, yeah that's pretty much HumanPolitics.txt. Because the politician has to plan for the world not ending, and if the world does not end, then he has to make sure he's not doing something that won't get him re-elected. Because, at the end of the day, that's all he's there for. See also: Everyone running the world in World War Z.
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Nov 10, 2014 05:34
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Speedball posted:See also: Everyone running the world in World War Z. Do you mean the movie, or the book? Because I haven't seen the movie, but the book seemed more about military tactics than politics.
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Nov 10, 2014 10:21
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aerion111 posted:Do you mean the movie, or the book? To not get into too much detail while the book does have parts that concentrate on the threat of the zombies, how they were lost to but eventually overcome, there are many parts where it explores how the various surviving governments adapted to and dealt with the changing conditions and how that affected the former.
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Nov 10, 2014 11:20
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Also the zombie plague gets as bad as it does because most world governments were engaged in various forms of rear end covering.
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Nov 10, 2014 13:58
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Fair enough. I guess in both situations it even makes some amount of sense, even if you don't care about your job: If you leave yourself too weak, some idiot will decide it'd be better to conquer you first, THEN defend the world... And the union would collapse into chaos.
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Nov 10, 2014 14:05
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Just sent in the submission. Feeling better about it now. The working title is Crystal Baby. In a weird dimension of crystal people, a doctor, her daughter, and two visiting human doctors go on a road trip to a village to deliver a budding crystal baby and fight a huge flying monster that shoots laser beams from its tentacles. Now that that monkey's off my back I'll probably do another XCOM update tomorrow.
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Nov 11, 2014 01:21
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Speedball posted:Just sent in the submission. Feeling better about it now. The working title is Crystal Baby. In a weird dimension of crystal people, a doctor, her daughter, and two visiting human doctors go on a road trip to a village to deliver a budding crystal baby and fight a huge flying monster that shoots laser beams from its tentacles. That sounds strangely awesome...
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Nov 11, 2014 01:56
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I want to read it now.
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Nov 11, 2014 02:38
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Deadmeat5150 posted:I want to read it now. Ghostwoods posted:That sounds strangely awesome... What those guys said.
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Nov 11, 2014 02:48
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Well if the story gets picked up you'll get to see it drawn by someone way better than me. I might give you a more detailed synopsis when I get home.
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Nov 11, 2014 04:06
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I am a horrible person because what came to mind when I read that was "Wait, can we deflect the lasers with the crystal baby?"
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Nov 11, 2014 04:51
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Section Z posted:I am a horrible person because what came to mind when I read that was "Wait, can we deflect the lasers with the crystal baby?" Surprisingly, that seems like a rational thought someone would have in that situation.
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Nov 11, 2014 05:10
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Then Crystal Baby would be a sequel to Sockbaby.
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Nov 11, 2014 05:48
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Oh, Gods. Toastboy. WHY?
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Nov 11, 2014 12:30
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In a city within a strange dimension full of insectoid Crystal People and other silicoids, Dr. White needs to travel to an outlying village to deliver a crystal baby that’s been budding. Her daughter Goldie’s too young to fly but too pushy to leave behind, so she travels by foot, along with two human doctors from the magical human world: Sarin, a comedic shapeshifter/cosmetic surgeon and Mori, a motherly diagnostician with light powers. On the road past reacher trees, sugar crystal bushes and shell snakes, Goldie and the humans talk about the differences between them; why humans need breasts (“they make milk sometimes; the rest of the time they just look cool!”), why Crystal People marry when they reproduce by asexual budding (“You don’t marry someone to make a kid, you marry someone you TRUST with your kid!”), and that Goldie shouldn’t try to smile back at the humans, because her needle-like teeth are scary to them. Sarin asks how long Crystal People live. “We’re not sure,” says Dr. White, “because THINGS like gazers keep happening to us.” Just as they mention it, they see a gazer attacking the village in front of them: a huge floating monster with wide jaws and tentacles that shoot laser beams. Dr. White and the humans rush to the defense of the village. White reinforces the shells on the houses with her paste while some lifter-type Crystal People hurl boulders at the gazer. Sarin grows wings to fly Goldie to safety, and Mori delivers the coup de grace by drawing a numerical magic square in the air with light. She punches the square into laser beams that tear apart the gazer and end it. Dr. White rushes to her pregnant friend, Green, who’s in labor but unable to break the shell of the bud on her body with the baby in it; fortunately White’s expertly able to free the baby to the delight of her moms. Sarin: “Congratulations, it’s a girl!” Mori: “They’re ALL girls!” Sarin: “Heh.” Everyone’s saved, and of course the lesson is that no matter how weird their biology, people are still people. The end.
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Nov 12, 2014 05:24
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Speedball posted:In a city within a strange dimension full of insectoid Crystal People and other silicoids, Dr. White needs to travel to an outlying village to deliver a crystal baby that’s been budding. Her daughter Goldie’s too young to fly but too pushy to leave behind, so she travels by foot, along with two human doctors from the magical human world: Sarin, a comedic shapeshifter/cosmetic surgeon and Mori, a motherly diagnostician with light powers. Huh, sounds weird and interesting. Also (for some reason) makes me think about how many people would likely give the crystal people structurally superfluous breasts (or something roughly shaped like them)for no logical reason. I can have moments of... eccentricity and sometimes be quite curious about things. Please forgive me if I do something foolish or rude.
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Nov 12, 2014 17:18
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Sounds like a lot of fun 
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Nov 12, 2014 20:37
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...sorry I didn't update Tuesday like I said I would, I found out my professor wants a book review for a book that's been out of print for years and sells for dozens of dollars and is not available on e-machines and isn't in any local libraries.
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Nov 12, 2014 21:14
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Speedball posted:...sorry I didn't update Tuesday like I said I would, I found out my professor wants a book review for a book that's been out of print for years and sells for dozens of dollars and is not available on e-machines and isn't in any local libraries. And when you told him this, did he happen to reveal a trunkful of them and say 'unmarked, small bills only'? 
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Nov 12, 2014 21:36
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FredMSloniker posted:And when you told him this, did he happen to reveal a trunkful of them and say 'unmarked, small bills only'? This guy is loving CRAZY. There was a quiz that had three questions regarding whether or not we read the syllabus, on a ten-question quiz. Two asked us how many points we'd be marked off on future quizzes if our cellphones rang in class.
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Nov 12, 2014 22:07
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Speedball posted:This guy is loving CRAZY. There was a quiz that had three questions regarding whether or not we read the syllabus, on a ten-question quiz. Two asked us how many points we'd be marked off on future quizzes if our cellphones rang in class. I'm going to go out on a limb here, and guess that this guy stopped giving any fucks whatsoever the instant he got tenure.
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Nov 12, 2014 23:07
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A little positive thinking has changed my mind on this guy. He's still crazy, but fox crazy. There are methods to his madness.
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Nov 13, 2014 05:37
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Speedball posted:A little positive thinking has changed my mind on this guy. He's still crazy, but fox crazy. There are methods to his madness. I suppose it's not like it actually matters that much what he tests - ultimately, the goal's to test your ability to remember and process new information, the actual content will be largely forgotten (unless you take follow-up classes, anyway) - but I'd still be vary. Though, the book thing seemed like a mistake either way. But... 'Dozens' of dollars? Converting that to NOK, that's essentially 'a few hundred NOK'... Are you telling me that the US usually sells textbooks for under like 50-70 dollars? Screw free education, it might be cheaper to study in the US then!
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Nov 13, 2014 15:59
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aerion111 posted:Are you telling me that the US usually sells textbooks for under like 50-70 dollars? This was not a textbook. But textbooks can be stupidly expensive here too. I needed to cheat a bit by buying used books online from some discount warehouse or else I'd have spent waaaaay too much on this class. This information age era we live in makes such things seem all the more ridiculous, but, such is life. ANYWAY: To rerail-this thread: we are going to definitely have the "Assault the Alien Base" update on Friday. Speedball fucked around with this message at 16:08 on Nov 13, 2014 |
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Nov 13, 2014 16:05
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aerion111 posted:I suppose it's not like it actually matters that much what he tests - ultimately, the goal's to test your ability to remember and process new information, the actual content will be largely forgotten (unless you take follow-up classes, anyway) - but I'd still be vary. College-level textbooks in the USA usually retail between 100 and 700 USD, depending on the subject and how specialized it is. That's per book, by the way. It's about time X-COM paid a visit to the aliens, after all the times we've accommodated them in our cities, it's only fair that they should have to host us as well. I only hope they remember to plan for some of our soldiers' more unique dietary requirements. Keeshhound fucked around with this message at 16:55 on Nov 13, 2014 |
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Nov 13, 2014 16:51
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There are also courses that don't have textbooks but instead require you to buy a half-dozen random smaller books for $20-50 apiece. College literature prices in general are a gigantic racket.
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Nov 13, 2014 17:37
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As much as I want to jump on the expensive textbook train, yay, I am looking forward to the alien base update!
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Nov 13, 2014 18:22
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aerion111 posted:Are you telling me that the US usually sells textbooks for under like 50-70 dollars? AHAHAHAHA, what an amazing joke. More like $100 on average. Speedball posted:This was not a textbook. What kind of book that isn't a textbook would costs dozens of dollars? Is that why they apparently didn't sell all that well?
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Nov 13, 2014 18:52
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ViggyNash posted:AHAHAHAHA, what an amazing joke. I wish my textbooks had been 100 on average. Would've saved me a lot of money in college, I can tell you that. 
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Nov 13, 2014 18:53
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Keeshhound posted:I wish my textbooks had been 100 on average. Would've saved me a lot of money in college, I can tell you that. By "on average" I mean based on the lowest possible prices I could find. For this semester, I spent $80/$140/$150 on 3 books.
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Nov 13, 2014 18:56
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You guys can't get or use international and/or previous editions? I've probably spent a grand total of $500 on books for my last 2 years as an electrical engineering major.
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Nov 13, 2014 19:10
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Watermelon Daiquiri posted:You guys can't get or use international and/or previous editions? I've probably spent a grand total of $500 on books for my last 2 years as an electrical engineering major. There's a fairly sizable "grey market" in cheaper international editions, yeah. The same textbook that costs over $100 here can cost less than $5 in India, with the only difference being that the material quality of the book is a bit lower (it'll even be the same language). You can imagine that the textbook companies do everything they can to shut that international trade down, though.
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Nov 13, 2014 19:13
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Watermelon Daiquiri posted:You guys can't get or use international and/or previous editions? I've probably spent a grand total of $500 on books for my last 2 years as an electrical engineering major. Depends on how much of an asshat your professor is and the availability of alternatives. Of course, it's also questionable how much you actually need most of your textbooks; the last half of my career I didn't buy any of them, and the few that it turned out really were necessary for the classes I just borrowed from friends or one of the campus' libraries. Like TooMuchAbstraction said, it's all just a huge loving racket, and the best way to deal with it is not to play by the rules whenever you can manage.
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Nov 13, 2014 19:18
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Watermelon Daiquiri posted:You guys can't get or use international and/or previous editions? I've probably spent a grand total of $500 on books for my last 2 years as an electrical engineering major. I have, but only when I could find an international edition. Many of my textbooks, especially later on, didn't have an international edition. My current textbooks didn't even exist outside the school store, which is a whole other level of bullshit. Quick, someone find a way to tie this discussion back into X-Com!
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Nov 13, 2014 19:24
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ViggyNash posted:Quick, someone find a way to tie this discussion back into X-Com! Clearly Thin Men have infiltrated the textbook companies and are conspiring to ensure that humans can't afford to get educated enough to fight off the alien menace!
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Nov 13, 2014 19:37
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TooMuchAbstraction posted:Clearly Thin Men have infiltrated the textbook companies and are conspiring to ensure that humans can't afford to get educated enough to fight off the alien menace! As far as sleeper agent plots go, this one is pretty loving dastardly.
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Nov 13, 2014 20:40
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SSNeoman posted:As far as sleeper agent plots go, this one is pretty loving dastardly. Yeah, that is a pretty evil plan and totally in character for Thin Men... They are assholes, after all. Trying to buy all my textbooks used online from Amazon saved me a decent amount, better than what the college bookstore was offering, no doubt. As a math major, some of my textbooks can be pretty expensive, but usually I can skimp by buying used and getting previous editions, which most of my professors are cool on. Usually around $90 or so for a book that I'll probably look at a couple times during the semester to do homework and that's it? Can't usually find international editions for them either on Amazon, which is a shame since that probably would've saved me more money. My history minor classes are worse, because those usually ask me to buy a 3 or 4 books that go for like $30~60 each, so that's a hassle. At least I use those books more, for sourcing in papers and for required background reading!
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Nov 14, 2014 20:54
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