I’m not sure if it’s a good idea or a terrible one, but Artorius (the main story) really is one of those things that can easily be or become anything: novel, game, web comic, whatever.
I thought I’d decided on a novel, but the pacing and the cerebral nature of Artorius is something a visual novel could convey and carry more smoothly. At least in the way I envisioned it. That’s got me wondering if a visual novel is the better fit for the main story.
So why not both? Write the novel and then make a VN version. I’m only going to be able to do one or the other initially. Both have extremely difficult aspects to them. A novel, despite being pure text, can be insanely difficult to finish (especially in the same year you start it). Visual novels have a lot of media assets tied to them and I’ve got to conjure all of those up myself.
I don’t know which route I’m better equipped for, nor which is better for the story itself … and speaking of routes, that’s another thing visual novels can do. Between that and the inner monologues, slower pacing, and long stretches between the action, this might be the way to go.
That’s just how I feel at the moment. I might completely shift gears on this in a day or two, but I’m going to have to decide soon, and I’m doing a lot of research to help me get there. If I do decide once and for all to go the novel route, I know all of the major events by heart now, I’d just have an uphill battle weaving it all together and trimming the fat. If I go with a visual novel, I could probably have the story finished in a few months, but then I’ll probably spend the rest of the year or longer struggling to get the media for it.
Nothing major to report just yet, but I’m trying something extremely risky with merge blocks in my carousel landing plates.
As useful as the magnetic plates have been, landing with those is never going to be quite precise enough for rapid launch and retrieval. More importantly, I can’t blueprint the planes along with the ship unless they’re docked to it through either connectors or merge blocks. Since connectors are too thick for this, I’ve got to see if merge blocks will do the trick.
I’ve already had several close calls with random instabilities: from random shaking of the gate hinges to my avatar being dimensionally catapulted out of the ship and glitched all over the place. Still, if I can get this to work around 90% of the time it should be worth the occasional Klang.
Maybe.
On second thought, if the merge blocks don’t work out, I could try an unconveyored setup with connectors. That might give me just enough room to fit the planes and still be vertically symmetrical. We’ll see, but I’m going to gamble with the merge blocks first.
I find it a little funny that I’m reading Halo The Fall of Reach while the Halo tv show is airing. It could be more than just a coincidence; even ignoring the show for the most part, it could have easily influenced my book choice without me realizing it.
Anyway, it’s funny to me because that show is getting a lot of complaints, and the ones I’ve heard make plenty of sense. One complaint in particular concerns Dr. Halsey, and it’s disturbing to say the least. She’s one of the more interesting characters in the Halo universe due to her unique place in the overarching story, responsibility and history with the Spartans, personality and outlook, and more.
In Halo Fall of Reach, she’s grounded and borderline empathetic toward the Spartans in making, feeling responsible for them and the procedures and hardships she has to put them through. In the show, she’s an unrepentant, narcistic war criminal. Halsey’s always been a bit cold in her portrayals in the games, but that’s because she doesn’t wear her heart on her sleeve. She does unethical things, but she doesn’t enjoy one fleeting second of it, and as much as she tries to distance herself from the spartans emotionally, her sense of responsibility–and perhaps a little maternal instinct–have her constantly stepping out of her role as the Spartan II Project’s head and into those of the Spartans’ guardian.
I won’t say it’s cute, but on multiple occasions she calls them ‘her spartans.’ I will say this, though. It’s endearing. It’s endearing watching someone committing unethical acts for some supposed greater good becoming more and more concerned with the wellbeing of their test subjects.
I haven’t seen the tv show in its entirety (that’s starting to sound like an impossibly tall order), but the scenes with Halsey in them are disgusting and the contrast between the two versions of ‘Dr. Halsey’ is bizarre to me.
I really hope no newcomers to the Halo franchise are getting their start here. This isn’t the first impression of Dr. Halsey–or any of the characters–that anyone needs. Grab a book, any book, just don’t let this show that’s clearly taking more than its fair share of liberties with the lore, technology, and characters of the Halo universe, inform you about them.
I have no idea why 90% of live action adaptations of video games ruin so much for so little, but I’m punctuating this post with a sigh, because this is the perfect example of that 90%. I guess this case with Halo just hits harder than most because it’s a much bigger series, with clearer rules, lore, and better defined characters.
This show could have been interesting, but the more scenes I peek in on, the less interested I become.
It’s a bit barren at the ground floor, but the Admiral Hipper‘s hangar is more or less finished.
Upper hangar
Mid hangar
Lower hangar
The new fighters are slightly modified Cosmo Messer Es. Official designation is BfC 109Er Rider. These are just variants configured for use on a capital ship that’s not a carrier. There are only a couple of visual differences besides the color scheme. Also, since fighters assigned to capital ships are all unique (due to relatively small numbers), these eight fighters are numbered both externally (on the tailfins) and internally (cockpit/antenna).
That was a little tedious, but I might do this with the remote blocks and any other blocks that could use a unique ID.
As for the carousel hangar, since it’s finished I’ll be trying to improve the design on future ships that use it, aiming to get as close to the Yamato’s hangar as I can. As for Admiral Hipper‘s version, this is the version she and all her sister ships–with the possible exception of Seydlitz/Weser–will be using. I can’t think of a reason to do any big or drastic changes between them.
And before I forget …
The exterior needs some finishing touches, as well as some final color scheme commitments, but she’s nearly finished. The major things left to do are mostly ‘programming’: Script options, Admiral Hipper‘s experimental response cues, filling out the consoles and button panels, things like that.
I was too out of it yesterday to do anything, so I just took the L and went to bed. Today I’m diving into JavaScript, among other things, so that should be interesting. Interesting and completely out of my comfort zone.
I don’t know what I’ll post about it on here, exactly. I still haven’t gotten used to documenting the little things. Major progress is easy. “Hey look how far I’ve come! Isn’t this great?!” It’s hard to know what merits a post and what belongs inside a larger topic, though.
Anyway, P.R. is a good place to keep some of my notes, so I’ll wait and see how much material piles up.
