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Hosted Projects - Standalone => Wings of Dawn => Topic started by: Spoon on April 04, 2015, 04:10:37 pm
Title: WoD discussion thread
Post by: Spoon on April 04, 2015, 04:10:37 pm
Discuss and question all things NuWod related here.
Title: Re: WoD discussion thread
Post by: Swifty on April 04, 2015, 04:32:56 pm
I thought this was a dating sim, not a space sim. You lied to us Spoon.
Any false advertisement regarding this is solely Axem's fault!
Post by: Lorric on April 04, 2015, 06:50:19 pm
Quick question, on normal difficulty are you as vulnerable as you would be on insane?
The player takes (from V Easy to Insane) 50%, 75%, 80%, 80%, 80% damage. Shield and Afterburner recharge rates are the same on Normal, Hard and Insane too.
Player never takes full damage, that's interesting. Allies take full damage?
I killed AndrewofDoom. Wonder if he knows about that...
I want to play Banner of the Stars. Where do I get the trading cards? Is there a starter kit for sale? :) Bonus points to you Spoon for catching me with that while I'm actually in the process of watching Banner of the Stars. So when do I get to meet Jinto and Lafiel? :D I wonder if you'll actually make "Banner of the Stars" as a forum game? The amount of detail on those cards makes me wonder if we'll be seeing them again...
Random thoughts so far:
The talking segments are so cool!!! Tempest is cute. And much more agreeable than her previous incarnation. Justice has certainly changed looks-wise, but so far, personality is about the same. I'm enjoying getting to know them. And Dawn too for that matter. I loved the introduction to the Terran factions. I'm getting sucked into the World. Speaking of suck, I suck at shooting anything down... :p But I've gotten this far. I am very fond of the music in the out of mission segments. Very pleasant and relaxing. I wonder how the resupply drone is going to effect the balance. Old WoD you couldn't resupply, now you can, and fill up on hull strength to boot, and so can anyone else who uses it. I've poked my nose into everywhere I can, been in the techroom and the journal. Some nice pictures in there. FRED is calling to me. I want to play around with the ships and get them all blowing each other up. :)
Post by: Veers on April 05, 2015, 12:34:49 am
Played it, finished it. 20/10. I have bought extra copies to play as well.
Seriously, that played through without a hitch*, redesigned control scheme kept getting me but I've always been too lazy to rebind keys. I didn't experience any errors or anything that seemed out of the ordinary, and overall was a very smooth experience, FPS rarely dipped to 40 and was consistently much higher, nothing wrong with performance.
Nothing but praise on my end, Fantastic! Loved it! Obligatory: Where is Episode 2?
Flying the Mk III and turned glide on accidentally, didn't know what I had pressed and was flying away from the bombers attacking the Zeph.. felt so helpless. Thank goodness NuWOD contains IRC support! :D
Post by: Destiny on April 05, 2015, 01:12:59 am
Truly enjoyed the few hours spent playing the entire morning. Spectacular cutscenes, shiny new ships, reworked storyline. Spoon and the people who contributed really made something.
The Ray Mk. III is ever more deadly now with glide. Even on Insane,
I managed to chase away both MCWSes in less than two minutes!
A stellar performance for a Terran fighter...maybe...
because their pilots were still nuggets?
If only you could intercept missiles like the Zy ones in Ye Olde WoD - having a bunch of ship-launched anti-fighter missiles on my six and unable to shoot them down while gliding makes me sad :P
Secondary-wise, the HLP-1 is my new favorite secondary for now. You can use it to shoot at ANYTHING! Fighters, bombers, capital ships, mines, even as a dogfight weapon it excelled if you can keep your fighter pointed at the enemy. Just invokes that latent human desire to launch lots of projectiles at people, this HLP-1 does.
And the best part of all - twintails!
Post by: niffiwan on April 05, 2015, 03:58:45 am
I've only played a few missions so far, and have to leave my PC for 5 days tomorrow :( but I need to say: AWESOME WORK! :yes2: :nod: :yes:
I'm loving this so much it should be illegal ;7
Also super chuffed that I got a mention in the battle-live-feed :D
And.. umm... one minor nitpick, I broke the training mission and had to restart it, if you manage to destroy one of the missile launching ships the next one doesn't arrive (ramming speed!! :nervous:)
Post by: -Norbert- on April 05, 2015, 06:29:12 am
I'm a bit confused about Dawn's visit with
the Cyrvans.
She clearly didn't know or understand the language they talked to her in first, but she understood what they were saying to her. Was that telepathy?
Post by: Spoon on April 05, 2015, 06:35:48 am
Quote from: Lorric on April 04, 2015, 07:21:22 pm
Yup, they do.
The card game segment was originally going to be a sort of playable bit. But after spending a full two days on it and only having gone through like 20% of the branches, I started to realize it was going to be far more time and effort than it was worth. So I dropped that idea...
Quote from: Destiny on April 05, 2015, 01:12:59 am
Yay :D
The HLP-1 is a favorite of mine too, it's like equipping your ship with additional DPS.
A lot of the Hierarchy missiles will be interceptable, it's just that in episode 1 a lot of the missiles that get shot at you are also missiles the player can use. Giving those missiles hitpoints would make player missiles a lot less fun to use.
Quote from: Veers on April 05, 2015, 12:34:49 am
Great to hear :D
I've personally gotten so used to WoD's default control layout out, that I frequently import the Controlconfigdefaults.tbl into other freespace mods (though the muscle memory of the classic layout is still pretty deeply embedded into me) :P
Quote from: niffiwan on April 05, 2015, 03:58:45 am
Hope you didn't mind that Axem shortened your name a bit
I actually tried doing that a couple of times but never ended up killing any. One time, one got away with 2% hull. I was 2% hull away from discovering that bug...
Quote from: -Norbert- on April 05, 2015, 06:29:12 am
It's a mystery~
Post by: procdrone on April 05, 2015, 08:35:05 am
Damn you Spoon, if you had released it a DAY earlier, I could play the new release too... Till tomorrow, I have to wait. :D
Post by: FrikgFeek on April 05, 2015, 03:39:44 pm
Managed to unlock "the lewd". Seems the carpet doesn't match the drapes :P. Dawn is just the cutest little psychopath.
I think I'm going to modify the ai-profiles.tbm so I take 100% damage on insane on my next playthrough, maybe It'll be more of a challenge then.
Interesting thing that I wonder if and how Spoon has covered, as I'd be amazed if he hasn't encountered it. His capital ships have very low HP compared to the ones in Freespace by numbers. What I did was put a CSA Ascension up against a Zy Basileus to see which one would win. The Basileus gets crushed in a matter of seconds, but then the only-lost-a-few-%HP Ascension dies too. This happened all but once and I realised what was happening, it gets struck by a piece of debris from the Basileus, and because of the very low HP, gets obliterated.
Post by: Droid803 on April 05, 2015, 04:56:16 pm
I don't think the problem is because it has very little HP.
Debris is deadly.
Quote from: Droid803 on April 05, 2015, 04:56:16 pm
I did a test and that is the problem. I jacked up the HP to 100,000 and it took 10% damage from the hit. So perhaps that means debris delivers a straight 10,000 damage. The Ascension with its normal 3,750 HP can't take that.
Whether Spoon has this covered I don't know.
Quote from: TheHound on April 05, 2015, 08:35:05 am
Sorry! I tried to release as fast as I could! :p
Quote from: FrikgFeek on April 05, 2015, 03:39:44 pm
They totally match though! :p
You mentioned finding the difficulty too easy in the review thread. You are sort of right about the difficulty being lower because it's the introduction campaign. But on the other hand you can also blame my play testers for finding it too difficult. :p
There's also the fact that the skill levels within the freespace community vary tremendously, on one hand you've got elite veteran players that can take on every challenge, on the other end the people that struggle playing it on medium. It's pretty hard to strike a good balance for it. So I've tried to balance the insane difficulty around my own skill level (since I actually need to be able to complete the missions myself, to test it), so you can take pride in the fact that you are a much better pilot than I am! :p
As Droid said, debris is insanely deadly and also completely unworkable.
The capital ships aren't giant pools of HP for a bunch of gameplay reasons, but they do get a significant damage reduction from weapons that are not AntiCap
(And that's 6x :p smilies in one post)
Post by: Jellyfish on April 05, 2015, 07:18:54 pm
I'm going to need a bit of spoonfeeding here.
To unlock "the lewd", I need two things, right? One is in mission 3, the other in mission 4. I'm pretty sure the crates of "Soap" are the thing in mission 4, but what should I look for in mission 3?
It's visible from your starting position in mission 3
Post by: Dark Hunter on April 05, 2015, 10:51:32 pm
*unlocks "lewd"*
*shakes head at WoD team*
Not that I'm complaining...
On a more serious note, the more I replay the Blue Haven mission, the more fun I have with it. The first time around I didn't even realize there was an alternate way to accomplish it. My Gundam nerd is geeking out even harder somehow... :D
Post by: Flak on April 05, 2015, 11:10:08 pm
The Blue Haven mission is very easy to cheese actually.
First time I did it in the hard way, running away from the turrets that is. Then, I just take a peek in, use the communicator to taunt them, run back out, and make a beeline for the ship. As soon as it is in range, call in the big guns. You can jump out immediately when they are done.
Post by: AdmiralRalwood on April 06, 2015, 12:01:02 am
Debris damage is not fixed; it's calculated based on the collision and modified by a few factors. However, at capship scales, it is probably meant to operate in the scale of ships with a hundred thousand HP, because that's how much e.g. the Orion has; it might be worth tweaking the debris +Damage Multiplier (http://hard-light.net/wiki/index.php/Ships.tbl#.24Debris:) (or, alternatively, setting its +Damage Type so that armor can apply).
Post by: Dark Hunter on April 06, 2015, 01:49:20 am
Quote from: Flak on April 05, 2015, 11:10:08 pm
You sir, are missing the point so hard.
Why do something like that when you can
steal a leftover Hazel, blow up some redshirts, live out your inner Zeon by blowing a hole in the side of the colony, and then have a showdown with the enemy leader in a dogfight?
Dawn suggested the nickname "Red Comet" for herself earlier. After doing that, it's pretty applicable, except she wasn't flying a red fighter. Or wearing a mask.
In mission 3 I'm supposed to set charges by hitting alt+x (it even says so right on my screen), but when I do nothing happens.
I tried resetting the controlls to default, but still nothing.
Oh and while I'm at keyboard layouts, you mentioned that in WoD it's possible to swtich between new and classic FS2 controlls with a button-press... but which button is that?
You have to target the green circles, and then press Alt-X.
Tempest does mention this, but it's really easy to miss.
As to the keyboard layouts, hit the "Default" button in the control setting screen. Hit it once for FS controls, twice for WoD controls, and so forth.
Thanks, that did it. It's a bit confusing that you get the message to set the charge even without targeting the spot...
Post by: AndrewofDoom on April 06, 2015, 05:44:25 am
I do, and I my ghostly self is coming to your house for some sweet, sweet revenge.
I only noticed that I was a drone in the training mission just as I was blowing up. Probably a reference to how Axem was an enemy Nordera fighter in the original WoD. Hopefully. You're not being passive-aggressive with me are you, Spoon? :(
Post by: Commander Zane on April 06, 2015, 07:19:54 am
When it comes to the Ray Mk. III and fleet logistics, are the E and W models now faction-exclusive (SF IIIE and DD IIIW), or do the other Terran fleets field them as well?
In-game suggests they're exclusive, while I may assume their use by the LSF because of "contribute ships, etc.," but the knowledge could be in what we haven't seen in the lore currently exposed.
Fully aware this is possible, but after testing that mission 12367 times (and it's a painful one to test...) I simply lacked the mental fortitude to add even more checks to prevent this from happening. Mental fatigue was really setting in at the beginning of march.
Quote from: Dark Hunter on April 05, 2015, 10:51:32 pm
Don't blame the team, that was all on me :p
Quote from: AndrewofDoom on April 06, 2015, 05:44:25 am
Probably a reference to how Axem was an enemy Nordera fighter in the original WoD.
Yes it was.
Hopefully. You're not being passive-aggressive with me are you, Spoon? :(
No I'm not :p
Quote from: Commander Zane on April 06, 2015, 07:19:54 am
Yeah those are faction exclusive. In theory the other factions could very likely reproduce those variants if they set their mind to it. But for various reasons have never decided to do so, It all depends on their fleet doctrines. The LSF (and thus the player) will have access to most of them though.
Quote from: AdmiralRalwood on April 06, 2015, 12:01:02 am
Okay, so debris is not completely unworkable then! I should look into this...
Post by: FrikgFeek on April 06, 2015, 09:54:25 am
So I went for that "100% player damage" replay. I think that was just the right difficulty to be enjoyable, got shot down by the Nordera once(what a shame, I know) and fighting the Zervium was such a rush. It can kill you in about 1.5 seconds if its beam hits you so you have to squeeze every ounce of performance out of your fighter while trying to catch the slippery bastard.
Had to use my primaries to force it to dodge, then rammed it with burners and unloaded with dumbfires and guns to force it to retreat. The 2nd time around was a bit easier because Tempest was somewhat useful in distracting it.
I don't think it's just the fighter itself though, whatever you did with the Cyrvan AI is great. It will zip around while trying to keep its guns pointed at you but it still prefers avoiding damage and won't suicidally rush you(like the Nordera).
Post by: Flak on April 06, 2015, 10:44:44 am
The Cyrvans fighters are very vulnerable to those projectile weapons actually. Once the shield goes down, that whatever dumbfire secondary missiles will tear them like paper.
Yeah, the "El Derp" or whatever's it's called dumbfire is actually an energy weapon and will do massive hull damage once you blow through the pretty damn strong Cyrvan shields with the VK-03N. You just need them to stand still for a bit(which they usually don't, they keep gliding and side-thrusting all over the place).
Post by: Lorric on April 06, 2015, 11:13:19 am
About the unlockable, can you get it through the techroom, or does a new campaign need to be started?
Quote from: Dark Hunter on April 06, 2015, 01:49:20 am
Whaaaaaaat... :eek2: Have to check this out…
Old WoD, which mission is Axem a Nordera fighter? Never saw that.
@AndrewofDoom
It's your own fault. If you hadn't started shooting at me, I might not have noticed you. :P
@ Spoon
About the debris, I was looking at Ralwood's link, and it looks like you can make debris not be a factor at all by setting the max lifespan of it. Does that mean you could set it to like 1 second and it disappear almost immediately? Wing Commander Saga I'm like 95% sure doesn't have debris.
Post by: Dragon on April 06, 2015, 05:48:45 pm
Quote from: Flak on April 06, 2015, 10:44:44 am
I found that Type 74 is the real best. If you're a good marksman, it'll tear CSA fighters apart with surprising ease. :) It's got plenty of range, doesn't cycle between firepoints and does massive hull damage as far as mass drivers go. It one-shots most shields, and the second shot will most often kill any small fighter that isn't a Cyrvan or Nordera. The drawback is, of course, the ammo limit and slow ROF, but I haven't ran out even once and if you aim carefully, the ROF won't be a concern. Cyrvans are notoriously hard to get a bead on with the mass driver, but if you get a few shots in in quick succession, they're dead.
Coming back to the unlockable stuff... I tried looking all over mission 3 (the one with the five charges, right?), but I only found asteroids. I tried blowing up the two right next to the starting point (and their impact debris looks almost Shivan oO ), but still nothing. Can someone tell me what I'm missing please?
It took me ages to figure it out for M3, and I found it at the end by accident.
Second Playthrough, this time on Insane. Much more comfortable with the control scheme now, so probably why I was much better overall.
'Borrowed' a ship, released a prisoner and kept two little elves for my growing... list of friends.
Quite good :)
You sure we played the same game Dragon? Because the Type-74 has by far the lowest hull damage of any weapon in WoD. It does 12 hull DPS compared to the VK03N's 25. Obviously the Energy weapons all deal far more than that.
It does have pretty good anti-shield alpha though, but the VK still deals 10 more sustained dps if you can stay on target.
Quote from: FrikgFeek on April 07, 2015, 08:21:24 am
It's true that the Type-74 has an abysmal hull DPS, even the light weapons will outperform it in that category. However there is something to be said for having 240-320 upfront alpha shield damage! I think it comes down to pilot preference, imo Dragon raises a few very valid points about the Type-74.
Quote from: Lorric on April 06, 2015, 11:13:19 am
It's a campaign variable, can't do it through the techroom.
About the debris
Sorry, I still haven't taken a look into this.
Don't move from your starting position in mission 3, rotate a bit to your right. You should be able to spot the container.
except she wasn't flying a red fighter.
The Ray I is half red! :p
Well, true, high alpha goes well with the Ray3 hammerspace device. You can fire off a burst then quickly switch to avoid losing DPS. Blowing through a shield quadrant with the type-74 then destroying the hull with the Vx-08 is a viable strategy, I just found it weird that Dragon said the Type-74
Quote from: Dragon on April 06, 2015, 05:48:45 pm
does massive hull damage
which it absolutely does not.
Quote from: Spoon on April 07, 2015, 10:18:15 am
The Type 74 has ended up becoming my weapon of choice, since I'm not very good at sustaining hits on a target at all, but can do much better at lining up for a single hit with a weapon like this, and the size of the shot helps with that too. It also does feel like it goes through the hull well, probably because with good shield regeneration and good AI management of the shields you have to bust down a lot more shield than hull, so I appreciate the weapon's ability to keep a shield suppressed.
Thanks Spoon.
Post by: Dragon on April 07, 2015, 11:55:08 am
As far as mass drivers go, it does. While DPS itself might not be stellar if you go by the numbers, it makes up for it by delivering it in a concentrated burst. VK-03N will miss most of the shots you fire from it (as will any such weapon), since it's a cycle-firing high-ROF machinegun. You wouldn't want to fire the Type 74 at max ROF anyway, meaning that practical damage dealt is quite impressive, especially considering the range. That said, it does require good aim.
EDIT: Ninja'ed. Yes, a lot of the impression comes from the fact Type 74 can suppress shields a lot better than other weapons. A lot of things simply don't have the hull strength to survive a single salvo, which, IMO, trumps "table" DPS here. Overall, neither of the available ships is really suited for cycling weapons, you end up with a wide alternating pattern that makes it harder to hit things.
Post by: Enioch on April 07, 2015, 12:40:02 pm
Interrupting the weapons tech discussion, to squeee like a schoolgirl:
(http://s10.postimg.cc/vsqalgpqh/Card_DD_Admiral.png)
[squee]Eeeeeeeeeeeeeee....[/squee]
When's the new forum game starting? :p
Ah, that reminds me. Spoon, if you were trying to make this into an actual game we could play, you must have made more of these cards. Can we see them please? :)
Oh and Enioch, just what did you do to get this kind of favor with Spoon anyway, he gives you two fleets and now this... :lol:
[DD Commisariat] I'm sorry, you are requesting information that is beyond your security clearance level.
Please exit through the door to the left, for easier access to the crystal mines.[/DD Commisariat]
I have no idea... :nervous:
I wonder what the Lorric card would look like and what abilities it would grant.
Maybe...
Planman (battle starts in optimal position for CRF)
Zeal Speech (mild boost to all stats)
Charge (whatever it does since Kalazonitov has it too and Lorric's character was lead from the front)
Kalazonitov's is very fitting for him indeed. Double damage and two attacks for having two fleets and Charge (whatever it does) since with all that power we were naturally very aggressive in using it. :)
Quote from: Dragon on April 07, 2015, 11:55:08 am
As far as mass drivers go, it does.
The only other mass driver in the game is the VK03N, and that does a bit more than double the hull damage. And it's really not that hard to keep on target with it in a Ray, it's manoeuvrable enough to keep everything aside from the Cyrvans in it's sights. The VK03N is better for keeping shields suppressed too, but the Type-74 is better for blowing through a single quadrant fast and then switching.
Can't account for preference, but I still feel like the Type-74 and the VX-08 plasma were meant as specialist weapons to be used together with the Ray3s hammerspace inventory, while the VK03N and the CHI-MPC1v are much better "generalist" weapons(especially the VK03N, it seems like the best all-rounder to be used on the Dragonfly).
Overall, neither of the available ships is really suited for cycling weapons, you end up with a wide alternating pattern that makes it harder to hit things.
I'd have to disagree here. The Ray3 is very good with cycling weapons, as all it's gunpoints are right next to the cockpit. The only problem with it is that it's a bit hard to aim with dumbfires, as the missile banks are on the wings and you have to offset your aim quite a bit to hit anything.
Post by: -Norbert- on April 07, 2015, 03:54:59 pm
Lol.... now that I found the
I wonder how I could ever overlook it :lol:
Thanks Spoon. :)
Post by: procdrone on April 07, 2015, 08:43:28 pm
Just finished.
That thing is glorious. Good joint team work on all of this.
....axem, you really have some aces up your sleeves (referring to fleet combat cutscene)
Quote from: TheHound on April 07, 2015, 08:43:28 pm
Axem is a cutscene master. He even broke his own rule of never cutscening with fighters and made it look great!
Quote from: Enioch on April 07, 2015, 12:40:02 pm
(http://s10.postimg.org/vsqalgpqh/Card_DD_Admiral.png)
All the cards that I made got used in that scene. (I think)
Post by: Rodo on April 09, 2015, 10:19:24 pm
awwwww, felt so short!
MOARRRR.
I want to turn those naughty cyrvans into my personal servants.
Finally found the time to finish it!
It was indeed a bit short, but I enjoyed every second of it. I can't wait to see how it'll continue :)
Okay so, two questions for ya'll.
Seeing as pretty much everyone seems to be in inagreement that episode 1 was too short.
1. How long did it take you to play through it (I doubt anyone timed it, so just a rough estimate is good)
2. How many hours would you say is ideal for a campaign to be?
I got held up by the Dragonflies and the Hazels and the Cyrvans and the shadows wrecking my frame rate, but it still only took me a few hours. Maybe about 6 hours. I can see how some people beat it on the night of release.
I don't think the length is something you need to worry about though. This is just the first of multiple parts that will form the whole.
I think people are only saying it's too short because it's so good. We want more! But if you had increased the amount of content in the first release, then we'd still be waiting and we'd have nothing. It doesn't matter how much you release in how many segments when the whole will still be the same when it's done. Would it matter if the old WoD had been released in 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 segments when it was over? Though maybe it does, because surely all this positive feedback has given you a boost, a boost that you wouldn't have received if you were still working on the first release now. It's good to release something and get feedback. And while the cliffhanger makes me crave to know what will come next, it was a good place to stop as I think big things are going to happen in the story and then that will take us into another group of missions and VN segments and cutscenes with new characters and information. I think the circumstances of the story are better for dictating where to stop and release something than a predetermined amount of missions or content.
As far as ideal length of a campaign, I don't deal in that kind of thinking. If I like something then I want more of it! Less isn't more, more is more! :)
It took me about 6-7 hours, considering I replayed some missions due to myself jerking around with gun types and testing stuff out, I don't believe it to be that short to tell the truth.
The thing is that as the story is quite interesting, at the same time it feels to be progressing slowly.
Then when you get to a point where it seems that the main fuzz is gonna start it suddenly breaks and tells you the act 1 is finished.
At the moment I thought, MAN it's gonna be like 10 acts to cover all the story if the plot is gonna advance at this pace.
Don't get me wrong, I believe this act was as it is because basically it's a testing ground for the development of the rest of the story.
And I'm exited and eager to see what's coming next already!
As an estimate of how much time an act should weight well... I believe that 8-10hs is way enough, problem is not length but how story progresses.
I'll wait anyway, top notch work with this guys. Enjoyed every bit of it.
No idea about actual time, but that's not what it is about. You've got 6 actual missions in there. This is usually the length of a "minicampaign" or a demo (which is what nuWoD felt like). I think that if you went for double that number, it'd be more adequate. 15 missions would probably be the best number for a single "episode" (though the story could be longer, of course). As for the whole story, 25-30 mission epic is what it deserves, at the very least. :) Could be split into two episodes, like it's often done these days.
I think that the pacing and length of the old WoD was quite good. The demo built up a bit slowly, but I think that it feels a bit like it because we're not used to the VN segments (for example, WiH would present you with a wall of text instead, which you could read through somewhat quicker). Mission-wise, it took 6 missions for what takes about 3-4 in FS1 (on the other hand, it is a self-contained campaign, while FS1 never did much with Terran-Vasudan conflict).
How are you people getting 6-7 hours? It takes 6-7 hours to beat AoA and that has 21 missions(though some are cutscenes). I think nuWoD ep1 took me 4 hours, tops, though my 100% player damage replay(by modifying ai-profiles.tbl) was some 30 minutes longer because I died twice and had to be a bit more careful(and therefore a bit slower). And I didn't skip any of the VN segments(though how much time you get out of those depends on your reading speed).
I don't think the length(or lack of it) detracted from the enjoyment of the campaign though.
I do "play" VNs though so maybe I was more used to that format which allowed me to read through them faster.
Post by: Commander Zane on April 10, 2015, 08:08:39 pm
It's possible some of them did what I had done, and gone through the Tech Lab as the campaign progressed, counting it as part of the play time.
Between the missions (One that I died three times in) and the VN sequences, I would check the Journal and Tech Lab Database for new entries, so I read everything. Altogether the first playthrough was about five hours on my end.
Well, if that counts then yeah, I spent an extra hour reading up on everything in the journal and the F3 Lab(wanted to check all the shiny stuff that hasn't appeared in ep1 yet).
Yeah, I read all the techroom and journal entries.
I ended up playing the tutorial level twice. First to try the new control scheme which I rejected, then the second time because I haven't played Freespace for many months and used it to help break myself back in (and was pleasantly surprised that the instructions changed to match up with the old control scheme.)
I played the optional level.
I'm a quick reader, but I relaxed and took my time over the VN segments, reading out the words like someone was talking in my head.
There was plenty of deliberation over choosing primaries and secondaries.
I also managed to drag one attempt of the 2nd level out for about half an hour. Now I hang around the Zephy in this mission, it shreds up anything that comes near real good. :pimp:
I've attempted it on hard now and cleared it in one attempt comfortably.
There's really no reason not to play the optional level though. It's pretty fun(if a bit easy because you have a lot of backup) and you can get 2 capship kills.
Other than to see how the dialog changes in the VN scene.
Aright, that was pretty useful feedback.
It also changes what variable gets saved for future episodes
As in Episode 2? Mission variables can pass to different campaigns?
Thanks to some of Axem's lua magic.
That's very impressive. I've already done four playthroughs to see how many things I can do differently, and that's going to skyrocket.
I'm curious about the rooms made for the backgrounds, given they're from Space Engineers. Were those made by you or someone on the team? And were they part of a ship or station, or just single rooms?
Post by: Axem on April 11, 2015, 08:33:06 am
I made them with a bunch of mods (partial credit list is in the game somewhere). The sets were sort of constructed like movie sets. Dawn's room, the bridge and hangar were all connected with the hallways seen, but nothing was laid out like it would be in the actual ship.
So how does it work if I have more than one pilot with the same campaign or replay the campaign or make a separate pilot for each episode?
I intend on making a separate pilot for each episode.
Like for instance if I go through to see what happens when I skip that mission would that be saved as the variable even though my "real" choice would have been to save the Ostfront?
Or what if you have no variable at all because someone comes in and plays the episodes out of order?
I would assume skipping episodes or playing them out of order would load a default variable for a "canon" outcome.
Like FreeSpace 1, doesn't the third mission have additional ships if you don't find the ace? If you go to the Tech Lab and just load the mission doesn't it load as if the bonus wasn't completed?
Another question, do the variables carry over to the techroom for replaying missions?
I wonder if letting Ophelia live is a good thing or a bad (or inconsequential?). I don't know if you get to keep the Hazel. I assume she dies if the Zephy blows the Contravention.
Mmmm.. thinking I might need to replay it just to check if I missed something.
So many things being said that I don't recall!
Wait... you can keep her alive? I thought calling in the Zephy to blow up the Contravention was the only way for the mission to succeed.
There's an alternate way to complete the mission.
Look around inside the colony very carefully before you call in the attack.
It took me ages to find it... in fact I didn't after spending 20 mins flying up and down the station so edited the mission file to remove the stealth flag so I could target it at the mission start :nervous:
Sure is a fun way to complete the mission though :D
Post by: Phantom Hoover on April 12, 2015, 04:20:41 pm
This campaign has a heap of novel and varied weapons, but I never really felt comfortable experimenting with them when I was going into a live combat mission with no idea how my guns were going to perform. I realise it's probably not practical to introduce weapons piecemeal like in FS2, but have you thought about making some kind of sandbox where the player can experiment with different weapons and get a feel for them without any narrative pressure?
Quote from: Phantom Hoover on April 12, 2015, 04:20:41 pm
Yeah, for that reason I only gave the players a small selection of weapons (only 4 primary weapons out of like 14 available) this campaign. In episode 2 I'm planning on giving the player access to a simulator during most of the VN segments, so you can experiment in peace with all the new weapons.
Campaign variables do not work when playing through the techroom.
The variables will mostly be extras, if you play it out of order or through the techroom you'll get none of their benefits.
Quote from: Spoon on April 12, 2015, 05:47:23 pm
So I guess there's a "default" setting then. I decided to check the VN with the bath scene in the techroom and yes, the bath scene option is gone even though I unlocked it in the campaign. It's a shame that campaign variables will be one time deals. Not a problem if you only plan on playing through the missions one time, but a problem if you want to replay, as I will very much. So that unfortunately has me hoping there won't be anything too special, too awesome with the variables, as it will only be able to be experienced once.
I forgot to mention this before, but I really liked the diary, people and picture section. :yes:
Post by: LoneFan on April 16, 2015, 07:12:00 pm
Wait, there's no lets play yet on youtube. Get to work QuantumDelta.
Yesterday I saw this 'spike' of like 10-20 visitors (yeah, that's a spike, WoD's download numbers are not exactly taking off like a rocket) on the moddb page, which let me to discover http://www.indieretronews.com/2015/04/wings-of-dawn-standalone-space-shooter.html this.
Violation Inc. though :lol:
Looks like it's getting recognized in a French gaming site as well.
Free Standalone game, perhaps it could lure some people who have never played Freespace before to make a purchase after playing this...
I know the names of the people in the headanis that weren't named. I don't think I missed anyone. Because unless Spoon is planting fake names in there, that's what they're called in FRED. :)
The Cyrvan in the opening is Valria (Isa of course is also there), the woman on the Ostfront is Lena and the Cyrvan that shows up in that mission is Listra.
Post by: niffiwan on April 18, 2015, 07:42:43 pm
Oops... potential spoilers ho!
I was intrigued by the dream-cutscene where you have the Cyrvan fleet attacking something above your point of view. There's a Hertak capship that jumps in and is almost instantly destroyed, presumably not by the Cyrvan's since they're all firing up. You start to pan up to see what they're attacking but it fades to black before you get there. Could they be fighting the Fir'kyr? Dawn was supposed to be the only one able to interface with Infi in WoD1, what if that has the potential to go horribly wrong and that's why the Cyrvans are all worried about Dawn and are treating her like an "evil artifact"? :)
Quote from: niffiwan on April 18, 2015, 07:42:43 pm
You can move your ship and look around before you jump. It's actually a combined Cyrvan/Zy/Cordi fleet. There are Zy on the left and a Cordi ship in the back. That got my attention right away as soon as I started playing it. And the Hertak ship jumps in and is immediately obliterated by something else before your own fleet gets crushed. There's a ship I don't know firing up as well (opened FRED to see what, it's Cordi. I also know what's up top, but I don't think that's our culprit, it's just serving as something to shoot at, there's a Fura'ngle Arbiter up there.) The Fir'Kyr are certainly a big possibility. Interestingly, in FRED, they have their own team in the list of teams. Now, I had thought beforehand of the Hertak prophecy from the first game, about how they were gathering their thralls to battle an ancient race that will return to destroy them. So maybe we all end up joining forces to face that race? Hopefully not after having been subjugated by the Hertak. Who knows, the Cyrvans could be part of the Hierarchy. But they have their own team too, so I doubt it. There's a Hierarchy team as well. I hadn't thought of the Fir'Kyr though. The name was known to me, but I had somehow imprinted them in my mind as the race the Cyrvans took under their wing, when that race is in fact the Yehio. That little wiki article says "the Fir'Kyr are an ancient species, as old or even older than the Aleyurians." So this could be the race the Hertak were talking about and we'll get to meet them. I think it's a good possibility. Infi was made by the Aleyurians though. But yes, that was something unique about Dawn. The Prometheus Frame is in the game, and that was but a light fighter of the Aleyurians and yet had incredible destructive power. If an evil faction could get Dawn to awaken something that was substantially higher up the totem pole than a light fighter...
EDIT: Apologies for some confusion that may have been caused, message has been edited after watching the cutscene again.
Big spoiler:
The Fura'ngle Arbiter I mentioned in the previous post is on the Fir'Kyr team.
That's certainly quite interesting. However I wonder if using the contents of the mission files is a good indication of what's going on, i.e. only 'what we see' is accurate to the story. Maybe the ship being targeted is just a placeholder until the appropriate model is built?
Yeah, I said the same thing. My prediction is the ship is a placeholder.
Post by: rubixcube on April 26, 2015, 11:55:00 pm
Stupid question: Is spoon actually Japanese? Or does he just really like anime?
Quote from: rubixcube on April 26, 2015, 11:55:00 pm
Or does he just really like anime?
AFAIK this ^^^^^^^^^^^^^
Is Spoon actually Japanese?
Not unless Japan conquered the Netherlands while I wasn't looking.
Well, stranger things have happened.
Both Japan and the Netherlands have conquered my land in the past at some point. Irony?
For me it'd be great if Japan invaded the Netherlands. Imagien how much the import-cost would drop if the postal service would have to send a package through only two or three other countries instead of literally to the other side of the globe. :P
Post by: Spoon on June 09, 2016, 07:14:50 am
Macross Delta talk split and send to general discussion (http://www.hard-light.net/forums/index.php?topic=92081.msg1816603)
Post by: QuakeIV on October 14, 2016, 02:54:06 am
So I just played this after the low level drama in the blue planet subforum, and I have to say this was quite enjoyable. I eagerly await more.
Post by: -Norbert- on October 16, 2016, 04:44:57 am
You should also play the "old" WoD, it's a lot of fun.
And while the information isn't exactly up-to-date due to NuWoD changing things, it'll still give you a better feeling for what the universe is like and what may come in future releases in some form or the other.
Did I already mention that it's fun to play? Because it is.
Edit: Speaking of which... is there still a download link for the old WoD around somewhere?
Post by: tomimaki on October 16, 2016, 05:16:26 am
Check WoD Archive. ;)
Post by: Commander Zane on February 21, 2017, 08:07:27 am
TIL playing a few campaigns with the original controls and going straight back to fighting Cyrvans is a good way to get your ass stomped. :P
Post by: Spoon on February 21, 2017, 08:23:49 am
(Remember that you can easily swap between the FS2 default control scheme and the WoD setup by pressing the 'defaults' button in the control config.)
Post by: Torchwood on February 24, 2017, 03:45:34 pm
I can highly recommend old WoD. It's got everything you could want in a Freespace 2 conversion: Interesting missions, sweet ships and a killer soundtrack. Wings of Dawn deserves all the love it can get.
Post by: LoneFan on February 25, 2017, 03:57:25 pm
Quote from: Torchwood on February 24, 2017, 03:45:34 pm
That's why I'm still here.
Post by: Wet Orange Ostrich Toilet on March 06, 2017, 10:50:30 am
Alrighty, got a question here for ya if you don't mind answering.
Spoon, where did you learn how to draw like this and what did you use? It all looks bloody amazing.
Post by: Commander Zane on March 06, 2017, 11:04:45 am
Photoshop and Emofuri, going by this (http://www.hard-light.net/forums/index.php?topic=74794.msg1834251#msg1834251).
Quote from: Commander Zane on March 06, 2017, 11:04:45 am
Post by: Spoon on March 06, 2017, 04:33:04 pm
Quote from: Wet Orange Ostrich Toilet on March 06, 2017, 10:50:30 am
As Commander Zane already answered with the link to the previous blog post, I use Photoshop, and then Emofuri to animate (as seen in JAD, not yet to be seen in WoD).
Post by: manwiththemachinegun on August 12, 2017, 12:56:12 am
The ongoing Wings of Dawn episodes are a soft reboot right?
Post by: Spoon on August 14, 2017, 07:58:06 pm
More of a hard reboot really, while there a lot of common elements between old wod and new wod, they are kind of seperate entities at this point.
Is there anything specifically that you look for when considering the WoD soundtrack? I ask because I never watched Gundam 00, and the battle theme that you used for the original WoD was A: awesome, and B: very much anime in style. Some sound similar to Evangelion, others Macross, others original, which I'm sure is intentional.
Post by: Spoon on August 16, 2017, 09:28:33 am
Important things I look for is that anime feel, how well the music can match up with action, and set a certain atmosphere.
It's in general a lot harder to find ambient music than a high tension combat track.
Post by: manwiththemachinegun on November 21, 2017, 11:27:07 am
If you had an "unlimited budget" so to speak for the setting. Is there any other type of game you think would work well? Not necessarily action, although it could be.
Post by: Spoon on November 21, 2017, 11:43:24 am
I would love to do a two layered turn based strategy game with the WoD setting. With a strategic and a tactical part and plenty of events to spice things. (so basically think of the WoD forum game, only done well)
Post by: manwiththemachinegun on August 24, 2018, 04:17:58 pm
So, I tried replaying the original Wings of Dawn, only to realize that I no longer have my 3.6.12 executable, and all the download links on that forum page are broken. Can someone rehost that file? I get crashes when trying to use 3.8 or 3.7.4.
Post by: FrikgFeek on August 24, 2018, 04:44:44 pm
Would be simpler to just fix the errors that happen on modern builds than trying to run it on some prehistoric exe.
Is anyone using a recent executable that can run WoD version 1.0?
WoD version 1.0 has bugs that the old builds couldn't catch, so newer ones will spew warnings at you when you try to run it. It's not too difficult to fix the tabling errors and make it run just fine on 3.8.1.
I spend the bare minimum time&effort to run it through a new debug build. What seemed to be causing the problems was a few cases of redundant ", in the ships.tbl.
https://mega.nz/#!tholEIjL!VXpUloQP64uhfJBtRGZ_SiIqJbULCsyCLcNJZpsuiko
It should probably run on new builds with this ships.tbl, though I guarantee nothing. I made it to the first mission at least, but didn't check beyond that.
You made me look at old WoD
(https://i.imgur.com/izrryKn.jpg)
I did not like what I saw.
Aw, don't be so critical of your old work. I still want to play it after all!
Post by: Nightmare on August 26, 2018, 01:05:39 am
Quote from: manwiththemachinegun on August 26, 2018, 01:04:25 am
Those are the drawbacks when you're a perfectionist.
Post by: 0rph3u5 on August 27, 2018, 02:57:05 pm
Quote from: Nightmare on August 26, 2018, 01:05:39 am
This has nothing to do with being a perfectionist (although it being one makes it worse), it's just looking back and go "this was good enough?!". Just shows that you standards have evolved with your abilities.


text:
Q: Putting multiline awk command in a for loop not printing the variable I have a command as follows, which takes lines from the Allergens file, based on lines from the IDs file.
awk '
    FNR==NR{
    a[$1]
    next
    }
    /^Query/ || $2 in a
    ' IDs C100_Allergens | grep -B 1 'Hit: ' | grep -v '^--'  > C100_Allergens_matches.txt

However, I have numerous sample_Allergens files, and want to run it in a loop as such, where list is a file with different sample names:
for i in `cat list`
do
    awk '
    FNR==NR{
    a[$1]
    next
    }
    /^Query/ || $2 in a
    ' IDs "$i"_Allergens | grep -B 1 'Hit: ' | grep -v '^--'  > "$i"_Allergens_matches.txt
done

I tried this loop, including using the variable flag for awk, i.e. -v i="$i":
for i in `cat list`
    do
        awk -v i="$i" '
        FNR==NR{
        a[$1]
        next
        }
        /^Query/ || $2 in a
        ' IDs "$i"_Allergens | grep -B 1 'Hit: ' | grep -v '^--'  > "$i"_Allergens_matches.txt
    done

I only keep getting empty files. Thanks in advance for your help!

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaStackExchange


Volunteers for Friday evening setup.
Langley Park Rotary Club will have two marquess at the summer British Superbike races at Brands Hatch. The marquees are used as a cloakroom facility for visiting motorcyclists where they can leave their helmets and motorcycling clothing whilst they watch the racing.
We make a standard charge of £2.50 for a helmet and £7.00 for a large bagful of clothing; there are a number of variations and combinations of pricing. All contributions go to to local charities.
Motor Vision Sport (MSV) who are the owners of the circuit, welcome our service to race goers. MSV make no charge to us for entry to the circuit and are most helpful to ensure that our enterprise is successful.
We, Rotarians and Friends of Rotary also provide the same facility for BSB races at other MSV tracks including, Oulton Park, Snetterton, Cadwell Park and Donnington.
Rod; Andrew M; Alan B; Phil H.
9am Meet inside the main gate at Brands Hatch and put up both marquees.
Four persons above plus - David Connolly; John Williams; Colin Read.
(we should be finished by early lunchtime) no trading done this day.
8am until about 11am - meet at Keston Unload one van and to Brands Hatch. Take down the top marquee and equipment. Return to Keston and unload.
Yes - some very good and well considered points there Andrew. Thanks for giving me access as an Adminsitrator. I will have a good look at the set up over the next few days. Exciting stuff.
Thank you. Yes it looks very flexible.
The first thing to do is to make sure that it does all we want it to do.
Not sure about a combination name for three clubs, let alone nine!
Suggest as I say it is simple but unrelated to any particular club!
I think we may find that the membership is much wider than local clubs if it takes off. The issue will be how the forum is set up and this needs to be thought about so that it is non-exclusive. So a flat structure will be important.
I think that if we want to encourage a wide interest in and out of rotary, all members of the forum should be considered equal, whether they are Rotarians or Volunteers, businesses, etc.
In my opinion, the problem with Rotary these days is a lack of understanding of how younger people think and or want to get involved. It is a generation gap and one that will eventually kill off Rotary.
As part of the District Membership team this idea interests me greatly. Because unless something different is done, rotary is rapidly going where Round Table went 20 years ago, and the parallels are already frighteningly similar!
Finally, and although the forum is presently setup as a subdomain of langleyparkrotary.uk, we need to consider a new website domain address that is rather less area driven. A bit more like an itv company name than based upon a placename.
Well done Andrew. This looks good and a lot cheaper than £300 for Website toolbox.
Can the Forum name be changed to something that would incorporate Beckenham and West Wichham (eg West Beck Park Rotary Forum) - should they wish to join and get involved of course. The main idea is to encourage Rotary Friends to help us at the more physical events and to build a group of useful non-members who we might call upon to help from time to time.
Can you make me an Administrator please so that I can Approve others who wish to join. I would like to send it to Stuart R. and Nolene before I meet them tomorrow.
General Discussion / Welcome to ElkArte!
We hope you enjoy using this software and building your community. If you have any problems, please feel free to ask us for assistance.


text:
Horoscope and Astrology 2023>Astrology>prophets
Just days before his death on December 27, 1944, well known Bulgarian mystic Peter Deunov had a vision which inspired him to relate a prophecy of what was in store for the human race in the century that was to follow. Deunov, also known to Bulgarians by his spiritual name Beinsa Douno, was a philosopher, musician and spiritual teacher who developed a form of esoteric Christianity. Curiously, his prophecy anticipated in great detail the concept of a superwave which he predicted was to purify the Earth in the very near future and not only bring about tremendous geological transformation, but also spiritually change the world, bringing into being a new human race, the "sixth race."
Peter Deunov begins his prophecy with an accurate reference to a coming Galactic superwave. He states:
"…everybody will soon be subjugated to divine Fire, that will purify and prepare them in regards to the New Era.
Some decades will pass before this Fire will come, that will transform the world by bringing it a new moral. This immense wave comes from cosmic space and will inundate the entire earth. All those that attempt to oppose it will be carried off and transferred elsewhere.
Although the inhabitants of this planet do not all find themselves at the same degree of evolution, the new wave will be felt by each one of us. And this transformation will not only touch the Earth, but the ensemble of the entire Cosmos."
Later he refers to terrestrial upheavals which indicate the occurrence of tremendous climatic and seismic effects. He states:
"There will be floods, hurricanes, gigantic fires and earthquakes that will sweep away everything. Blood will flow in abundance. There will be revolutions; terrible explosions will resound in numerous regions of the earth. There where there is earth, water will come, and there where there is water, earth will come."
Further on he refers to waves of "cosmic electricity" (cosmic ray electrons?) which will sweep the Earth. Indeed, the main component of a superwave would be its cosmic ray electrons. Here he indicates an ongoing volley:
"The earth will soon be swept by extraordinary rapid waves of Cosmic Electricity. A few decades from now beings who are bad and lead others astray will not be able to support their intensity."
Deunov also mentions that our solar system is currently traversing an unhealthy dusty region of "contaminated space" called the "13th zone" which was left behind by the destruction of a constellation (or star?):
"Our solar system is now traversing a region of the Cosmos where a constellation that was destroyed left its mark, its dust. This crossing of a contaminated space is a source of poisoning, not only for the inhabitants of the earth, but for all the inhabitants of the other planets of our galaxy. Only the suns are not affected by the influence of this hostile environment. This region is called "the thirteenth zone"; one also calls it "the zone of contradictions". Our planet was enclosed in this region for thousands of years, but finally we are approaching the exit of this space of darkness and we are on the point of attaining a more spiritual region, where more evolved beings live."
Indeed, just as he prophecies the solar system has for a long period of time, perhaps for the past 3 million years, been passing through the rim of the North Polar Spur supernova remnant, a cloud of dust and gas left from the explosion of a star many millions of years ago. Astronomers acknowledge the presence of dust clouds even contacting the fringe of our solar system. Also most of the long period comets that enter the solar system, that many claim to come from the Oort cloud, actually are part of this interstellar debris field and are entering due to the Sun's passage through this debris zone. According to the superwave theory I advanced in 1983, the presence of this nearby dust is responsible for why Earth has been going through a sequence of ice ages for the past 3 million years. For millions of years before that time we had no ice ages because we had not entered this dusty zone. For more information consult my Ph.D. dissertation, or read my book Earth Under Fire.
Also just as Deunov states, this dusty region is a hazard for many solar systems in our Galactic neighborhood. The NPS supernova remnant is believed to be located about 400 ± 200 light years from the solar system and to have a diameter of 370 ± 230 light years, thus affecting hundreds of thousands of star systems. His contention that it is a source of poisoning is also verified by my own polar ice research. As I have described in my paper recently published in Advances in Space Research, during the past few hundred thousand years, our planet has been subjected to the ongoing entry of tin-rich and lead-rich interstellar dust particles. One such particularly hazardous event, which occurred about 49,000 years ago, caused a hundred thousand fold increase in the rate of cosmic dust influx, produced a global climatic cooling, and increased lead levels in rain water 10 times higher than the EPA's maximum health hazard limit. These tin-rich dust particles still enter our stratosphere in small amounts and according to a research group led by Dr. Abbott of Lamont Doherty, one influx of tin-rich and nickel-rich dust occurred as recently as 536 AD causing a modest climatic cooling and obscuration of the Sun for one or two years. Deunov's prediction that we are about to leave this hazardous region is indeed welcome news.
What is really very amazing is that Peter Deunov had this vision in 1944 well before much was known about active galaxies and galactic core explosions. Most research on quasars and cosmic ray emitting core explosions began in the 1960's and even as late as the 70's not all astronomers were convinced that the Milky Way's core has previously undergone core explosions. Indeed, such astronomical background information was necessary in order for my own formulation of the Galactic superwave theory. Although in my case I was led to take a close look at the evidence and formulate this theory on the basis of a time capsule message that is encoded in our own constellation lore and sent to us by a prehistoric civilization. A message being relayed by radio pulsars also helped lead me to this idea. At the time of my early quest, I had no knowledge of Deunov's prophecy or of Ray Stanford's interpretation of the Fatima prophecy which also conveyed relevant information. Also Deunov's prophecy predates what was later discovered about the North Polar Spur and about the presence of interstellar clouds near the solar system. The astronomical observations that had been made since Deunov's prophecy and my own polar ice core research on the nature of the tin-rich interstellar dust deposited during the last ice age clearly validate what he said.
Deunov's prophecy also goes into much interesting detail on humanity's evolution through this event, how it will affect people's consciousness, and what will be the spiritual characteristics of Earth's coming inhabitants who will survive this event.
Source: https://etheric.com/prophecy-of-bulgarian-mystic-peter-deunov-predicts-coming-superwave-39-years-before-the-superwave-theory-was-first-proposed/

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


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text:
The United States Military is One Large Clusterfuck
Remember this guy? That should have been enough to scare you away from the military.
When I was nine years old, some friends of mine and I snuck into a showing of Apocalypse Now, which was an "R" rated movie in the theaters at that time.
Remember that little kid-friendly movie?
It takes place during the Vietnam War. It follows the exploits of Army Captain Willard (played by Martin Sheen), who is also a CIA assassin, as he heads up river from Vietnam to Cambodia to murder Colonel Kurtz, a US Special Forces commander who has gone insane and is directing his troops to commit atrocities against the local population.
The movie graphically depicts an unrelenting series of confusion, botched plans and straight-out fuck-ups, most resulting in widespread slaughter and misery for everyone involved.
It was a mind-blowing experience for a nine-year-old, especially on the big screen. The movie fascinated me, and I've watched it many times since then. It made me realize from any early age that one organization I would never involve myself with was the military.
Later, I learned that the movie wasn't an "accurate" portrayal of the Vietnam War, see, because it was actually based on a book called Heart of Darkness, which was written in the 1890s.
But I don't agree. I think there are elements of that movie that remain accurate to this day.
I think the premise of the movie is that the American military is basically an insane and destructive force, and it can't help but poison or demolish whatever winds up in its path. It is, in short, a total clusterfuck.
A few(!) recent developments seem to back me up on this. Where to even begin?
Clusterfuck #1 - the VA Hospital Scandal
Well, let's start with the Department of Veteran's Affairs, shall we? That's VA, for short. The VA is tasked with taking care of the health and well-being of our brave soldiers and soldierettes when they come back from the front lines of whatever war we're fighting at any given time.
By now, you probably know that the VA Hospital in Phoenix, Arizona, systematically delayed health care for at least 1,700 veterans by employing a convoluted secret or "unofficial" waiting list.
Apparently, they did this so that it would appear on official records as though wait lists were shorter than they actually were. This would boost performance measures at the hospital, which would in turn result in performance-based bonuses and salary increases for the hospital administrators.
The official hospital records show that new patients waited an average of 24 days for an appointment. In fact, the accurate, secret number was around 115 days.
I don't know about you, but if someone tells me I need to wait 24 days to see a doctor, that's a whole lot of Next. 115 days? Eh, that's almost four months. Hell, no. I could be dead in four months.
Indeed, in approximately 40 cases, patients, American veterans, died while waiting to see a doctor. At that one hospital in Phoenix. All so some people could get their bonus checks.
Lest you think this is some isolated incident, reporting by CNN and now the military's own audit has determined that the practice is common at dozens of VA hospitals throughout the country, resulting in delayed care for thousands of veterans.
Last week, the unfolding scandal led to the resignation of the Obama-appointed Secretary of Veteran's Affairs, Eric Shineski. If you think that will solve the problem, I don't think you've been paying attention.
Clusterfuck #2 - The Fort Hood Prostitution Ring
American hero Sergeant 1st Class Gregory McQueen. Oh yeah, he's a pimp, too.
I suppose this one is darkly ironic. 37-year-old Sergeant 1st Class Gregory McQueen is under investigation for organizing a prostitution ring at Fort Hood in Texas.
The ironic part is that Sergeant McQueen was working as a sexual harassment and sexual assault response and prevention coordinator at the time. When women came to him for help, he used that as an opportunity to recruit them into his prostitution ring, which allegedly served higher-ranking officers.
He specifically targeted women who were cash-strapped, especially single moms. In one case, when a woman refused to become a prostitute, he sexually assaulted her instead.
Um, did I mention that he worked in sexual assault and harassment prevention?
Clusterfuck #3 - the Case of Bowe Bergdahl
Bowe Bergdahl, while a Taliban prisoner of war.
In June 2009, Specialist Bowe Robert Bergdahl was a 23-year-old American infantry soldier stationed at a combat outpost in Afghanistan called Mest-Malak.
He had been raised to believe that the United States military went to other countries to help the people they found there. Apparently, he got this quaint idea from his father, who has since changed his mind.
During his time in Afghanistan, Bowe Bergdahl became disillusioned by his work. He sent his parents an email that reads as follows:
"The future is too good to waste on lies. And life is way too short to care for the damnation of others, as well as to spend it helping fools with their ideas that are wrong. I have seen their ideas and I am ashamed to even be american. The horror of the self-righteous arrogance that they thrive in. It is all revolting."
"In the US army you are cut down for being honest... but if you are a conceited brown nosing shit bag you will be allowed to do what ever you want, and you will be handed your higher rank... The system is wrong. I am ashamed to be an american. And the title of US soldier is just the lie of fools...I am sorry for everything here. These people need help, yet what they get is the most conceited country in the world telling them that they are nothing and that they are stupid, that they have no idea how to live. We don't even care when we hear each other talk about running their children down in the dirt streets with our armored trucks... We make fun of them in front of their faces, and laugh at them for not understanding we are insulting them...I am sorry for everything. The horror that is america is disgusting..."
I know, I know. The email makes you wonder - what kind of pantywaists is the Army recruiting these days? In any event, three days after writing those words, Bergdahl disappeared from his unit. He allegedly told one of the other guys that he planned to "walk to India." Which is actually possible, if not entirely feasible.
In other words, he deserted his post. Naturally, he didn't make it to India, and instead was captured by the Taliban in about four nanoseconds. He spent the past five years as a Taliban prisoner of war, only being released as part of a prisoner swap a few days ago.
So where's the fuck-up in this?
Well, for one thing, to get Bergdahl back, the Obama administration traded five high-ranking Taliban, who were busy being water-boarded and electrified at Guantanamo Bay. And they did it without alerting Congress 30 days in advance, so it appears they broke their own law against doing exactly that. In fact, Senator Dianne Feinstein claims that the administration deliberately kept the Senate in the dark for two years about the Bergdahl negotiations.
For another, at least six of his fellow soldiers died while searching for him.
Soon, Bergdahl will be back in the States. And among other things, he'll face the rage of his fellow soldiers, the ones who went out looking for him after he disappeared.
The United States Military is One Large Clusterfuc...


Hyperhidrosis, or excessive sweating, is a condition experienced by millions of people. It will often result in unnecessary perspiration on the hands, underarms, feet or brow. It can be source of tremendous social embarrassment, a drain on the wardrobe expenses, and an overall nuisance. Patients will often complain of having tried many over-the- counter remedies with minimal or no success. Successful treatment may involve Botox injections.


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Technically Sweet
A blog from a designer in tech, who loves all things fashion, travel, and life
What Will Astronauts Wear to Mars? Orange, and White with a Twist.
Join me on a tour of NASA as I get an insiders scoop on what has been, is, and may be worn into the depths of outer space.
Inside the VAB (Vehicle Assembly Building) which has also been used to shoot movies like Transformers III
This is one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind.
- Neil Armstrong
Welcome to a new kind of space race.
December 4, 2014 was the day set for the largest rocket in existence to take it's first test flight into space. More details on the Delta IV operations on a previous post here.
We all eagerly awaited the launch scheduled for 7:05 - however, like most space travel...nothing really goes exactly as planned. The beautiful and quiet sunset was interrupted by loudspeakers announcing a delay due to a ship in the water, causing a re-set of launch operations.
So we hung out in the press area and watched the sun come up... with it's beautiful sky changing color and the heat of Florida emerging with it.
Matthew Parker - @MattAttackPro
While anticipating the launch, I admired some of my comrades launch fashion. Fellow micro-blogger Matthew Parker was particularly dapper in a NASA-inspired handcrafted bow tie.
Here comes the sun...Florida is hot, then cool again - but I wondered, what must it be like to be in the temperatures ranging from +250ºF in sunlight to -200ºF in shadow in space, and what technology is used to make sure the astronauts are comfortable?
Here is a quick peek into the past:
Metallics are back for this Winter, but no one can pull it off as well as these guys
This is one of the first Gemini Spacesuits (pictured above and below) worn for for launch, in-flight activities and landing. These were also the suits that allowed American astronauts to walk in space for the first time in 1965.
The suit consisted of six layers of nylon and Nomex. Suit also contained multiple layers of Mylar insulation for temperature control. An outer layer of Chromel R fabric was later added for additional protection Detachable gloves with improved locking rings that allow easy rotation of the wrists
Removable combat-style boots made of Nomex fabric, along with a full-pressure helmet with a gold plate cover and containing a set of noise-cancelling earphones in the back and microphones in the front
An outer layer of Chromel R fabric was later added for additional protection. This is a Close-up of the woven metal
If you're totally into metallics right now and thinking about some extravagant Christmas shopping, Alan Shepard's Gemini spacesuit is being auctioned off for close to 200K.
Alan Shepard - looking great in Gemini metallic.
The color of Aerospace International Orange is used for safety and visibility. Believe it or not, the color orange is really making its comeback. After 1998, this suit in International Orange became the only suit used during launch and re-entry on the Space Shuttle, and is still used today.
The Advanced Crew Escape pressure suits worn by NASA astronauts. Also referred to as the "pumpkin suit"
The orange color allows rescue units to easily spot the astronauts in the case of an Orbiter bailout over the ocean. Underneath the suits, astronauts wear blue-colored thermal underwear, which has plastic tubing woven into the garments which allows liquid cooling and ventilation.
Cargo Pants with an actual purpose - here is what's in the "Left Leg Surviaval Gear Pocket":
Strobe light visible up to 50 miles,
2 Glow sticks
Flare kit with seven cartridges
1 survival mitten (yes only one)
Boots: Cute AND functional with built-in protection
Then of course there is Apollo Spacesuit to be worn outside of the aircraft. Reffered to as a Human-Shaped Spacecraft and a Space Tuxedo, because each part of the spacesuit sizes could be mixed and matched to create a better fit for each astronaut.
Apollo - Past
Apollo Spacesuit Challenge:
Design a spacesuit that would endure temperatures ranging from +250F to -200F. It had to protect against ultraviolet radiation and micrometeorites and seal out the vacuum of space while still allowing the astronauts to carry out their mission.
Lunar Wardrobe Specifications:
A liquid-cooled undergarment made of knitted nylon-spandex with 265 feet of plastic thing was used to circulate cooking water from the portable life support system An outer pressure gament (spaccesuit) of 18 layers included a helmet and gloves and provided meteorite and thermal protection.
The elbows, shoulders, wrist, knee, waist and ankle joints were rubber-coated allowing the astronauts limited movement for working on the moon. Caps worn under the helmet had microphones and earphones. On later flights, a quart bag of drinking water was attached inside the helmet. The gloves had fingertips made of silicon rubber to provide increased sensitivity.
Since the Apollo they've made a few upgrades for the Orion missions. Full details are not disclosed at this time, and Dava Newman from MIT is creating leaps and bounds within the arena of discovery (see older post here) but there is still much work ahead.
Orion's Future.
Ready for take off.
Who's on board the Mars One Mission with me? Let me know if you're brave enough to take your chances up there.
-XO Julia
Thanks for reading! These opinions are all my own. Follow live updates on my Instagram and Twitter.
References: NASA Keneddy // Alan Shepard - Photo credit: http://bit.ly/12YcGh6
Design, FashionTech
Solar Steve December 9, 2014 at 8:49 AM
Very well done! Maybe they will let you test out the new space suit.
Julia is an award winning UX Designer living in San Francisco. Most recently she has partnered up for projects with Sony, NASA, Google, and Facebook.
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© Technically Sweet. Design by FCD.


Tantrasway is a brand of Tantrasway Co., Ltd. which offers handicraft products. We attempt to provide finest products made by most skillful craftsmen and motorize all the model boats to conquer limitations of speed. Toward the harmony with the nature, all products are environmentally friendly.


Welcome to the home page of author C. Gold.
C. Gold is an avid World of Warcraft gamer and book reading addict. (She may or may not admit to having over two thousand books on her Kindle!) With a background in Electrical Engineering, Physics, Computer Science and Math (just not the theoretical kind that involves proofs), you would guess correctly that she enjoyed school perhaps a bit too much.
Eventually, she was lured into software testing because breaking things was just too dang fun and satisfied her intense craving to find out 'what happens if I do this?'. Word of advice – don't ask that question in a game unless you are prepared to lose your current progress (casting a fireball under water was not a good idea!) or get locked into a cage with no inner door knob letting you back out!
After many years of torturing innocent software programs and games, she finally retired and turned her gaze to the hapless characters inhabiting her imagination. At long last, she has the time and energy to write down her stories of 'what if?' and put those idle characters through the wringer.


The Searchers was made in the dying days of the classic dark Western, which faltered when Indians ceased to be typecast as savages. Revisionist Westerns, including Ford's own Cheyenne Autumn in 1964, took a more enlightened view of native Americans, but the Western audience didn't want moral complexity; like the audience for today's violent thrillers and urban warfare pictures, it wanted action with clear-cut bad guys.
The Searchers opens by introducing a happy family, then having most of them die horribly at the hands of Comanche raiders, but even that isn't the really grim part. The grim part is the rest of the film. As Ethan Edwards (John Wayne) and the family's adopted son, Martin Pawley (Jeffrey Hunter), track the Comanche, many miserable years pass, and the question of whether Wayne's wee niece Debbie (Natalie Wood) —the family's one survivor—will be found alive becomes a question of whether she'll be sane and fit for white-folk society even if they do. Once they finally do reach her, Wayne decides that living with (and, to his clear, vivid disgust, being sexually compromised by) Indians has tainted her, and he promptly tries to murder her.
The Searchers indeed seems to be two films. The Ethan Edwards story is stark and lonely, a portrait of obsession, and in it we can see Schrader's inspiration for Travis Bickle of Taxi Driver; the Comanche chief named Scar (Henry Brandon) is paralleled by Harvey Keitel's pimp named Sport, whose Western hat and long hair cause Travis to call him "chief." Ethan doesn't like Indians, and says so plainly. When he reveals his intention to kill Debbie, Martin says "She's alive and she's gonna stay alive!" and Ethan growls: "Livin' with Comanches ain't being alive." He slaughters buffalo in a shooting frenzy, saying, "At least they won't feed any Comanche this winter." The film within this film involves the silly romantic subplot and characters hauled in for comic relief, including the Swedish neighbor Lars Jorgensen (John Qualen), who uses a vaudeville accent, and Mose Harper (Hank Worden), a half-wit treated like a mascot. There are even musical interludes. This second strand is without interest, and those who value The Searchers filter it out, patiently waiting for a return to the main story line.
Ethan Edwards, fierce, alone, a defeated soldier with no role in peacetime, is one of the most compelling characters Ford and Wayne ever created (they worked together on 14 films). Did they know how vile Ethan's attitudes were? I would argue that they did, because Wayne was in his personal life notably free of racial prejudice, and because Ford made films with more sympathetic views of Indians. This is not the instinctive, oblivious racism of Griffith's Birth of a Nation. Countless Westerns have had racism as the unspoken premise; this one consciously focuses on it. I think it took a certain amount of courage to cast Wayne as a character whose heroism was tainted. Ethan's redemption is intended to be shown in that dramatic shot of reunion with Debbie, where he takes her in his broad hands, lifts her up to the sky, drops her down into his arms, and says, "Let's go home, Debbie." The shot is famous and beloved, but small counterbalance to his views throughout the film–and indeed, there is no indication be thinks any differently about Indians.


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Morissen () es una comuna suiza del cantón de los Grisones, situada en el distrito de Surselva, círculo de Lumnezia/Lugnez. Limita al norte con las comunas de Mundaun y Luven, al este y sureste con Cumbel, y al suroeste y oeste con Vella.

Referencias

Enlaces externos

 Sitio oficial de la comuna de Morissen

Comunas de los Grisones

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaWikipedia


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Fight against upskirting is far from over
Responding to data revealing that incidents of upskirting have been reported to the police at a rate of almost one a day since it became a specific sexual offence, Liberal Democrat MP Wera Hobhouse, who originally proposed the Bill, said:
"This horrifying statistic serves to show how necessary a change in the law was. Victims across the UK were failing to get justice and perpetrators of the crime were walking free.
"The change to make upskirting a specific sexual offence has not only given protection to victims and punishment to offenders, but it has shown how widespread the crime is.
"The Conservative government must now do everything it can to prevent sexual offences from happening in the first place, such as through better sex and relationship education in schools, as the fight against upskirting is clearly far from over."


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PLEASE NOTE: Asking a shop what is their minimum is NOT any indication of quality OR training. A better question to ask is what type of bandaging material does the studio use? Properly trained tattooers will use an absorbant material held down with medical tape or the new dermaseal medical bandaging.
Using cheap saran wrap is a sign of improper training and ignorance of Hawaii State Regulations.
Ask what a studio uses to clean their work surfaces. If it is anything less than a hospital grade tuberculocidal...walk. We use Opticide3 with a 2 minute kill time. It's the 21st century already!
Mountainside of Ala Moana Mall...straight out from the mall's McDonalds.
Across the street from TheBus drop off location on Kona Street.
Two blocks toward the ocean (makai) from Walmart/Sams Club on Ke'eamoku Street. Turn right on Kona just past Bank of Hawaii.
Kona Street runs parallel with Kapiolani Street. We are behind ThankQ restaurant and HR Block on Kapiolani.


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SEC leadership
SEC Leaders Discuss the Value of Independence
S enior officials of the Securities and Exchange Commission told members attending the American Institute of CPAs annual Conference on current SEC Developments in Washington, D.C., that audit firms must strive to ensure that audit quality will not be compromised and that auditor performance will continue to meet public expectations. SEC Chairman Arthur Levitt, Jr., and Chief Accountant Michael H. Sutton both commended the professions record for casting a "critical eye" on financial statements prepared by companies management, but they emphasized the need for auditors to continue to meet public expectations as the CPA profession provides clients with a new range of audit services.
To maintain both the fact and appearance of independence, Levitt said auditors needed to avoid all suggestions of mutuality of interests with the managements of companies for which they provide services. "Auditors cannot sell services that leave them auditing their own work," said Levitt. The chairman said some public opinion surveys had found that people thought auditing firms were more focused on consulting and other services at the expense of audit services. He said audits should remain the "soul" of the public accounting profession, "not a loss-leader retained as a foot in the door for higher fee consulting services."
The chairman said he broached the topic of independence because he had always held in high regard the "tremendous contributions the profession made to the stability and sophistication" of U.S. capital markets. "Let us build on the professions remarkable history, and, above all, let us work together to ensure that the confidence of investors is not compromised but, rather, strengthened."
Calling a fraud a fraud
The SEC chief accountant said that, finally, auditors had closed the expectation gap—the gap between what the ordinary person was thought to perceive as the auditors role and the responsibilities the profession established for itself. Sutton lauded new AICPA Statement on Auditing Standards no. 82, Consideration of Fraud in a Financial Statement Audit , as the most recent effort by the profession to help gain public confidence. He praised SAS no. 82 for referring to fraud by name, for the first time, instead of by the more euphemistic term "irregularities" and for describing over 40 fraud risk factors that auditors must consider in planning and performing an audit.
Sutton called on auditors to continue to earn public confidence by focusing on the appropriateness of accounting principles and the clarity of disclosures rather than reporting on whether an accounting principle is within the range of acceptable practice. "To continue to win the war of the expectation gap, auditors need to speak up—not just when things are wrong but also when things are not quite right—to pose difficult questions about the quality of reporting and to seek full and fair disclosure," said Sutton.
Single Audit Guidance Due This Spring
T he Office of Management and Budget (OMB) is expected to issue a final revision to Circular A-133, Audits of States, Local Governments, and Non-Profit Organizations, by April or May, according to Sheila O. Conley, OMB policy analyst. Under the Single Audit Act Amendments of 1996 (see "Auditing Federal Awards: A New Approach," JofA, Nov.96, page 53), OMB Circular A-128, Audits of State and Local Governments, was consolidated with the recently revised OMB circular A-133 for not-for-profit organizations. The proposed revisions to circular A-133 encompass both sets of entities that receive federal awards.
Besides the inclusion of state and local governments, the most significant changes for auditors in the proposed revisions include requirements for the auditor to prepare and sign a data collection form and the testing and reporting on the allowability of costs charged to cost pools.
Under the proposed revisions, the auditor would be required to prepare a data collection form and sign it as the preparer for use by the federal government as a basis for developing a database on federal awards and for use by the federal clearinghouse and pass-through entities in lieu of sending the full single audit report. There is concern in the audit community that this would increase audit costs and the auditors liability exposure.
Conley said this was a very contentious issue and changes to the language in the final version of A-133 were likely. "There is no doubt we are going to include the requirement for a data collection form," said Conley. "The question remains as to who will prepare it." Conley said the OMB wants the auditors to sign the report but would consider suggestions from the accounting profession on the language of the circular to help limit the auditors liability exposure. "One option is to have management prepare one portion of the report while the auditor prepares the part relating to audit findings and results," said Conley.
The proposed revision also would clarify the auditors responsibility for testing and reporting on the allowability of costs charged to cost pools. Auditors would be expected to perform tests of costs charged to cost pools during the period the costs were incurred rather than during the period in which the rate was applied or in which the costs were allocated.
The AICPA government accounting and auditing committee submitted its comments on the proposed revisions in January. For more information on A-133 revisions, contact Sheila O. Conley, OMB Office of Federal Financial Management at 202-395-3993.


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Medicare's Hospital Compare website rates your local hospital care
By Bob Moos
Southwest regional public affairs officer for the U.S. Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services
Have you wondered how your area hospitals stack up in terms of the quality of care they provide?
Emergencies obviously call for rushing to the nearest hospital. But when you have time to plan, it is worth doing some research and finding out which hospitals do the best job of caring for their patients.
Medicare's Hospital Compare website — at medicare.gov/hospitalcompare/search.html — has made it easier for you to check that. The site has overall star ratings to help you better understand which hospitals are top performers, which are average and which need improvement. The ratings range from one to five stars, with five being the best.
The Hospital Compare site enjoys a solid reputation with the public, showing how thousands of hospitals scored on various indicators of quality care. You can compare hospitals on the basis of such factors as clinical outcomes, customer satisfaction and patient safety.
The just-updated overall star ratings offer a snapshot of particular hospitals' quality of care, by summing up individual measures of hospital performance posted on the website. The ratings reflect such factors as how often patients get infections after surgery, how long patients must wait in the emergency department before seeing a doctor or nurse, and how likely patients are to get readmitted to the hospital after a heart attack.
The stars take into account the mix of patients at a hospital, so that those facilities with a high percentage of sicker patients aren't rated lower than those that handle more run-of-the-mill cases.
Medicare assigned stars to 3,692 Medicare-certified hospitals nationwide. Another 887 couldn't be included, mostly because they didn't have enough data to properly evaluate them. They may have been too new or too small and, therefore, had too few cases on which to base ratings. The ratings will be updated regularly on the website, as the government continues to collect the most recent data.
Nationally, 260 hospitals received five stars, 753 rated four stars, 1,187 scored three stars, 1,155 received two stars, and 337 had just one star.
The 31 rated New Mexico hospitals scored an average of 2.9 stars for overall quality of care. Two received five stars, six rated four stars, 11 scored three stars, 10 received two stars, and two hospitals had just one star.
The two New Mexico hospitals that received five stars were Holy Cross Hospital in Taos and Lincoln County Medical Center in Ruidoso.
Here are the scores for all area hospitals:
Carlsbad Medical Center -- 3 stars
Artesia – Artesia General Hospital -- 2 stars
Hobbs – Lea Regional Medical Center -- 2 stars
Roswell – Lovelace Regional Hospital-Roswell -- 3 stars
Roswell – Eastern New Mexico Medical Center -- 2 stars
Other New Mexico hospitals' star ratings can be found at medicare.gov/hospitalcompare/search.html.
By using star ratings on its Compare websites, Medicare is trying to help you make more informed decisions about your health care. The public reporting also gives low-performing providers a compelling incentive to improve their practices and procedures and, hence, their scores.
Nursing Home Compare, Home Health Compare and the Medicare Plan Finder also use star ratings to help you check out health care providers and insurers and choose one with quality in mind.
Of course, as informative as these websites can be, they can't tell the whole story about where to go for care. They're simply a screening tool that lets you focus on a few providers that interest you.
Visit with your doctor about the best hospital for you. Research shows that some hospitals do better than others at treating certain conditions. And talk to family members and friends about what they liked or disliked about their recent hospital stays and which facilities they'd recommend.
Medicare also recently updated its "Guide to Choosing a Hospital," which includes a checklist of questions to ask your doctor and explains how to find the hospital that's the right fit for you. A free copy can be downloaded at medicare.gov or requested by calling Medicare at 1-800-633-4227.
Once you've done your homework, you'll have peace of mind knowing you've made an informed choice about your care. Then you can concentrate on the rest of your preparations for your hospital stay.


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Cold Blooded Killers • 2016 • episode "4/6" • Attack and Defend
From the stealthy tarantula to the prehistoric Komodo dragon to the deceptive mosquito--one of the more prolific modern predators--killers come in all shapes and sizes. Join us as we examine the deadly adaptations of these cold-blooded culprits.
Attack and Defend • 2016 • 6 episodes •
Lions, hyenas, cheetahs, and the highly intelligent African painted dog all have different, but brutally efficient, hunting instincts. Meet these intimidating rulers of the African plains and learn the secrets of their secure reign at the top of the natural food chain.
Aerial predators like owls, falcons, and eagles have keen senses that allow them to see and hear things that would normally go unnoticed by other species. Fly alongside these magnificent raptors at the Canadian Raptor Conservancy in Ontario as they showcase the full range of their hunting abilities.
Insect Eaters
Some of the most skilled, efficient predators on the planet target an often-overlooked food source: insects. Get a closer look at the sophisticated hunting techniques of dragonflies, scorpions, Venus flytraps, and other cunning bug eaters.
Cold Blooded Killers
Masters of Defense
Staying alive is the first priority for all creatures--and with clever adaptations like poison and mimicry, some species defy the odds to outwit predators. From the hoverfly to the scarlet kingsnake, join us on a fascinating rundown of some uniquely successful survivors.
Underwater Warriors
From powerful sharks to mysterious fish shoals, the underwater dynamic between predator and prey is a never-ending one. Join these amazing creatures as they employ both offensive and defensive evolutionary adaptations, such as sharp senses and swarm intelligence, in their bid for survival.
Explore Europe's last great wildernesses - full of a stunning and surprising explosion of life.
5/5 • Wildest Europe • 2016 • Nature
Spring is late this year, and when it finally arrives, the race is on to find a mate and start a family. Black bears and beavers in the west, wood frogs in the south and 20,000 gannets in the east all have one thing on their minds.
1/4 • Canada: A Year in the Wild • 2018 • Nature
Volcanoes may have shaped Europe, but they could also destroy it. Find out how ticking volcanic time-bombs threaten the continent's existence.
3/3 • Birth of Europe • 2011 • Nature
Wetland Animals
Wetland Animals dives into the swamps, rivers and flood plains of Florida's Everglades, Botswana's Okavango Delta, Kakadu National Park in Australia, the Amazon and more. Meet deadly crocodiles, alligators and piranhas, wading elephants, hippopotamus and flamingo, and unlikely swimmers such as the manatee and platypus.
2/6 • World's Greatest Animal Encounters • 2020 • Nature
Debugged with Alex Jones
This documentary focuses specifically on insects. Giving you an unbelieveably up close and intimate view of the many unique secrets of the bug world. Answering scientific questions on how and why they have evolved certain bizarre adaptations, whilst using stunning imagery never seen before.
Africas Great Oasis the Okavango Delta
Deep within the arid expanse of the Kalahari Desert lies a true anomaly of nature: a land shaped by the unstoppable flow of inland floods to create one of the greatest wildlife havens in Africa. Experience the life-giving might of the Okavango Delta, in all its lush beauty.
3/6 • Africa's Wild Horizons • 2017 • Nature