Bleh

I've been sick the past three days. I'm almost better, and not a moment too soon! I'm leaving for Scotland tomorrow. One week in the Ancestral Homeland will be good for me.

I have no real set itinerary. Oh, I know where I'm going, I just don't know when and for how long. I'm backpacking when not taking the train and the bus. I have the most excellent backpack ever, it is in Half-Life colors (gray and orange!) It contains everything I think I'll need. ^_^ After Edinburgh, we're headed to Newtonmore so I can dispatch with Youngest, err, leave him with friends. Next, Dunvegan on the Isle of Skye is definite. Then either Newcastle upon Tyne (one, to take a piece of coal there; two, to see the fortifications and Hadrian's Wall) or Portmeirion in Wales. After those destinations, back to Edinburgh for the balance of my time, and then on to a Royal Dutch flight. Part of me is tempted to stay in Amsterdam, but I can't afford it. I was planning on spending another week in Europe, with a stint in Germany, but that didn't pan out.

I'm stresseed, but excited. I have no idea what I'm doing, I haven't totally planned everything, I don't have everything I want to have, which only adds to the adventure. This is the primary source of my stress; I don't have the first clue as to what I'm doing. I am not trying to escape my Giant, not trying to leave it here at home, to borrow from Emerson. Rather, I hope my Giant follows me there and enjoys the Highlands so much, it stays.

I've been playing Forged Allances. God knows how many skirmishes I've fought while ill. I spent much of Saturday studying the game AI and Sorian's modifications to it. Then I found what I needed: a map-marker editor. In short, it is a tool to give the AI general locations of where to do things. Now that I see how the AI works, I understand the inferiority of it is attributable to bad-mapmaking, not GPG or the modding community.

Against Sorian's, I'm twice as powerful as his non-cheating AIs, and 3/4s as powerful as his Cheating Adaptive AI on a suitably designed map. I put about 200 markers on the World Domination map, an 81x81km recreation of the Earth. It needs about 300 more to be playable for me. I know this, as I played one last night. I did my best work in Australasia; Sorian's Adaptive did a good job using the naval markers effectively, sending some ships north into India and then south down the coast of Africa (for shelling.) It even went between Madagascar and the continent. That made me happy. It rounded the Cape of Good Hope and began shelling the lesser AI I'd placed in South Africa.

I made multiple routes for attacks, even parallel ones that give a little additional variation. A kilometer here and there makes a difference when you've set fire-bases up on the shore and the ships are out of range.

It was pretty damn stupid with its airforce. I may have made the grid too simple. C'est la vie. As for the massive Land War in Asia I wanted, that didn't pan out. I screwed up the pathing over the Himalayas. The AI was smart enough to cross the Russian steppes into Europe, where I'd built an air-force base and a small land army at one point, but it wasn't effective.

The AI in South America was the most feckless. It was supposed to build a navy. It built a couple of the Cybran Salem-class destroyers (which are amphibious) and a battleship it suicided against my carrier-sub (which dived as soon as the battleship was in main-gun range, and proceeded to torpedo the BB to death.) Big whoop. It eventually built nukes, but was dumb enough to let its ACU get nuked by another AI.

Anyway, this is cool. I may begin playing with the AI itself to see if I can make it better against me. It takes me and a weak AI ally (i.e., Nature's Kevlar) to defeat a cheating Adaptive AI. Actually, on an 81x81 km map, I can probably do it myself if I build no land units and devote my entire industry for 3/4ths of the game to defensive systems (SAM and missile defense) and strategic bombers. One feature which would be nice would be Carpet Bombing. A click and drag area for T1 and T2 bombers. That would make me smile. I dislike the T3 bombers, but they are a must-use as they are the most powerful. C'est la vie.

So begins another September. Septembers are notoriously bad for me, hence the foreboding I feel at the moment despite all the great things which will happen this month. If something bad will happen to me, it is in September. Not this year, thank you kindly. This is going to be one of the best months of my life. With grim determination, I set forth to be happy. >_>

Well, I thought I'd leave y'all with an update. I need to spend this evening finishing up that piece for ANF to deploy whilst I'm across the pond.

Whilst I'm across the pond. Wow, that's weird. It's been long in coming, though.