we-are-star-stuff: applepiesfromscratch: Fight The...

we-are-star-stuff:

applepiesfromscratch:

Fight The Power!

Happy National Masturbation Month

Look Jason you made it into the science tag

Imported from Tumblr: http://rayegunn.tumblr.com/post/51215435744

So, a few days ago, my partner on Kentauroi, Christopher Stuck,...

So, a few days ago, my partner on Kentauroi, Christopher Stuck, was gearing up to finally, for real this time, get rolling on the script. He asked for a map of the continent it takes place on. A scribble showing where the capital was in relation to Arran would have been sufficient, because the entire story, at least for the first LONG while, takes place in that peninsula in the NW corner, Arran, and nowhere else. And that’s basically how it started out. 5 minute doodle thrown at him just to outline where the assorted groups of elves and humans made their homes. As often happens with things Kent related, it snowballed….We (it’s very much a collaborative effort) ended up placing it over a map of Earth to figure out just the right scale and place it just right in regards to the equator, (the darkest horizontal line near the south tip. Also plotted are 30 and 60 degrees north and south) the climate, topography, figuring out trade goods and routes, currents, a whole scenario of the Akrotann/imperial elves moving their capital long ago… We actually have other maps in addition to this, but i think this one gets the important stuff across, aside from borders. Chris is doing a more in depth political map, but don’t have that yet. All of this, while probably more than strictly necessary, was far from useless, knowing where everyone comes from is a valuable thing when constructing the story, and now we know things like what sort of trade goods would be coming from the various parts of the empire, and how they’d be arriving, so we can keep everything consistent and everything will make sense. But I felt like it was a shame for all of that work to go completely unseen by anyone but us, so here it is.

You can see that we have what would be an extremely geologically active continent, very ring of fire type scenario, and that’s totally intentional. Volcanic eruptions have played a large part in the history of the story (the human’s old island is vaguely equivalent to Iceland, and they don’t live there anymore because it blew up). And yes, the imperial capital is in the caldera of a supervolcano. It’s probably a bit large.. but pffft. fantasy, i can have i that there was an extremely massive eruption in the past. I don’t think they quite realize what a dangerous place for a city they’ve chosen. The whole area is like Yellowstone, if it blows, it will be utterly devastating.

So basically, there are 3 major races of elves. We need better names for the Sea and Wood elves, we have a real name for the elves from the middle of the continent, but not the other two just yet. But anyway, the Akrotann are in charge, they’ve turned the entire continent into an empire with them at the head. They’re vaguely middle eastern looking, though generally with light eyes, and their culture is kind of a mish mash, but mostly Greek/Roman with some Persian. Sortakinda. The Wood elves are the one you’ll see the most of other than them, they’re caucasian looking, and probably the closest to what you’d think of when you first think ‘elves’. Nature loving hippies, and they’re basically a loose collection of city states. The Sea Elves you will see fairly rarely because they are from so far away from Arran, but there will be a few of them showing up, mostly in the coastal cities, they are black, kind of a Caribbean vibe to them. The humans in the story are caucasian, since, as mentioned, Iceland and all, culture is very Norse inspired. But they represent just a tiny fraction of the humans on the planet as a whole, they’d have as much diversity as humans on Earth if you could see their home continent…. But if we ever do see it, that’s a loooong way off, they’re far across the sea.

Imported from Tumblr: http://rayegunn.tumblr.com/post/50531075159

kiev4am: letter-airy: rufftoon: colchrishadfield: With...

kiev4am:

letter-airy:

rufftoon:

colchrishadfield:

With deference to the genius of David Bowie, here’s Space Oddity, recorded on Station. A last glimpse of the World.



Huge thanks in the making of the video to the talented trio of Emm Gryner, Joe Corcoran and Andrew Tidby, plus Evan Hadfield and all at the CSA.

Chris Hadfield does a cover (with a few tweaks) of Bowie’s “Space Oddity”.

Have a safe flight back to earth!

Well. This was beyond amazing.

Holy crap, this is brilliant :D

awesome!

Imported from Tumblr: http://rayegunn.tumblr.com/post/50296649379

cracked: Caligula Vs. Joffrey Wow, that’s uncanny....

cracked:

Caligula Vs. Joffrey

Wow, that’s uncanny. thought it may be photoshiop but checked and it’s a real bust.

I kinda feel bad for the actor though, he’s probably the nicest guy in the world, but now not only is he forever associated with the little psychopath Joffrey, he also bears an uncanny resmblance to Caligula.

Imported from Tumblr: http://rayegunn.tumblr.com/post/49423734850

skyrimconfessionss: “The moment I became the Arch-Mage I...

skyrimconfessionss:

“The moment I became the Arch-Mage I regretted it. I just didn’t think that my level 28 Breton was powerful enough to be worthy of the title.”

http://skyrimconfessions.com/

Yeah, I have issues with how easy it is to become a faction leader in general, but especially the Mages Guild. In most cases, while it’s certainly possible many game days have passed, you more than likely spent like, a week tops at any one of the guilds, and they see fit to make you their leader? While some other characters there have been with the faction for years? At least with the Thieves Guild you can draw it out by doing side quests for Vex and Delvin before really diving into the main quest so that you’ve at least contributed to the guild in a meaningful way beforehand, the same is true though to a somewhat lesser extent with the Dark Brotherhood (to be fair, I have not finished their quest yet) and Companions. But with the College of Winterhold the most you could have done is fetched some books and soul gems, or let a couple of the other students use you as a guinea pig for some shoddy magic, and the main quest progresses so fast it’s almost over before you know it, you can finish it using almost no magic at all, and BAM, Archmage.

I’m not even sure why Bethesda feels it’s necessary for you to end up leader of every faction aside from the Bards College, anyway. I would be fine with just being a member as long as the quests they gave were still entertaining. Or at least make climbing to the top REALLY difficult and long. It would be far less jarring that way when you did end up in charge.

Imported from Tumblr: http://rayegunn.tumblr.com/post/49240729419

kiev4am: X-Factor is coming to an end in September, issue #262.

kiev4am: X-Factor is coming to an end in September, issue #262.:

kiev4am:

foreverrhapsody:

xcyclopswasrightx:

Peter David Readies The End of X-FACTOR

Cover to X-Factor 259 by David Yardin

I saw it coming from a mile away, but…

awwwww

AUGH I was just coming on here to wail about this news.

Yes, one might say the writing was on the wall on and…

What?? Noooooo…….! :(

Imported from Tumblr: http://rayegunn.tumblr.com/post/49170877041

skyrimconfessionss: “I use a cheat mod for lockpicking because...

skyrimconfessionss:

“I use a cheat mod for lockpicking because in my opinion Skyrim lockpicking is bullshit.”

http://skyrimconfessions.com

I never got why people found lockpicking in Skyrim (or Fallout, it’s the same system) difficult… I never bother putting perks into lockpicking, even on my thief character, because give me a handful of lockpicks and I can get into a Master lock at level 1, though yeah it’s a bit tricky. And have you played Oblivion? now that was a frustrating lockpicking system. I would happily download a mod for Oblivion that replaced it’s lockpicking system with the one from Skyrim.

Imported from Tumblr: http://rayegunn.tumblr.com/post/49064811233

we-are-star-stuff: applepiesfromscratch: Cost of the Mars...

we-are-star-stuff:

applepiesfromscratch:

Cost of the Mars Curiosity Rover - $800 million

Cost of a team to operate the Mars Rover - $1 billion

Total Cost of the Mars Science Laboratory mission - $2.5 billion

Accidentally drawing a penis on the surface of another planet - Priceless

Imported from Tumblr: http://rayegunn.tumblr.com/post/48809386410

skyrimconfessionss: “I wish Skyrim didn’t feel so small to me....

skyrimconfessionss:

“I wish Skyrim didn’t feel so small to me. I see all of these concept art photos, with massive mountains and huge expanses, but when I get in game it’s all scaled down. I understand why they have to do that, but hopefully things will be bigger in next-gen consoles.”

http://skyrimconfessions.com/

To be fair, this isn’t unique to Skyrim (or Bethesda’s games in general) it happens in all games that cover a fairly large area. I also don’t think it’s a console restriction, but a conscious design choice. When you are dealing with an area as large as a country, even a small one, which contains multiple cities and towns that you can visit, it’s just impractical for the devs to create all of it, it would take far too long, and it would run the risk of becoming more and more generic if they tried to do it. I’ve seen some games that block off areas in various ways to make it clear you are only visiting a small portion of a larger city, but that often feels a bit frustrating that you don’t have the freedom to go where you want. But on the other hand, I think it would also get frustrating if the cities were of a more realistic scale in terms of number of buildings, streets and people, and it DIDN’T have areas blocked off, because it would take so long to find your way around, that you’d never get anything done, and you’d constantly be getting lost in the warren of unfamiliar streets. It would make the quest markers an absolute necessity for finding specific NPC’s if there were thousands of them wandering around, too. I think we just have to accept that the world has been compressed, and that each person we see actually kinda represents 10 or even a hundred people…

Imported from Tumblr: http://rayegunn.tumblr.com/post/48415414528

skyrimconfessionss: “I think I spend more time taking...

skyrimconfessionss:

“I think I spend more time taking screenshots of my characters than I do playing Skyrim. I’m vain.”

http://skyrimconfessions.com

Image provided by submitter

yep. I hear that.

http://elderstats.com/character/3219/#!/photos

http://elderstats.com/character/3012/#!/photos

Imported from Tumblr: http://rayegunn.tumblr.com/post/48209675191