Do you have time for a Nuka break?

The Sun was burning from a clear, blue sky. A small group of travelers make their way through the Mojave wasteland. One of the travelers – dressed in the dusty blue-yellow jumpsuit of an underground vault – was trailing behind, gasping for air. As they passed underneath an old billboard he fell to his knees. As he was about to give up, a man dressed in a red-black merc outfit gave a bottle to the vault dweller. In a raspy voice, he said “Here. Drink that.” The vault dweller took one glance at the glass bottle in his hand. The red label, the white writing, the brown liquid. A Nuka Cola!

In an instant, the vault dweller was on his feet, had opened the bottle and was greedily downing its content, as a warm glow covered his world and the radio played a happy tune. One happy moment to prepare him for the coming harshness of the wasteland…

This is the opening of the Fallout: Nuka Break fan film. The fan film has a good grasp of the atmosphere and humor of the Fallout series, not to mention lots of references to the games. As you will find out, the affliction of the hero is a direct reference to the original Fallout games.

The graphical expression is similar to Fallout 3 and New Vegas. As noted earlier, it is set in the Mojave wasteland, around the time of Fallout New Vegas. Personally, I enjoyed it a lot, and if you liked either of the games in the Fallout series, I expect you will as well.

The fan film is followed by a web series, and the creators are trying to raise money for a second season. So, if you like it, go support it!

Initial thoughts on Sony ebook reader PTS-T1

Before making my choice, I had a good long look at the available ebook readers. While support for multiple ebook formats was a plus, my main objective was to get a book that would help me organize my notes for tabletop roleplaying.

After making a odt to pdf converter, it was easy to convert my notes to pdf, so the ability to handle pdfs was the primary functionality. In order to be convenient, it would need many of the abilities of regular paper. I would need to be able to add notes, maybe even drawings, to the pdf. It should be reasonably easy to skim through a pdf. I have a lot of documents, so some way of organizing it would be useful. Being able to connect the ebook reader to a computer and transfer pdfs were, naturally, of the utmost importance.

After looking at reviews, including some nice youtube videos, I made my choice: Sony PTS-T1. Primarily because its pdf handling is quite good. Like other readers, the screen is a bit slow to update, and sometimes the touch screen does not register your presses. But it does all that I need it to do. The reader can be connected to a PC, pdfs can be copied to it and opened on the screen. The reader also run Android, which is nice.

It does not come with reader software for the PC, so you have to download it from Sonys homepage. Like iTunes, the PC software helps you manage your library on the PC. When using the reader software, it prompts you to log into your Sony account. That is a bit annoying. It’s pretty easy to import files into your library – simply point it to a folder and it will import anything in it.

The library files can be moved into collections that can help organize your library. With 190 pdf documents, this is important as the ebook reader cannot use the folder structure to organize manually added pdfs. However, using collections requires that you add the library by using the Sync feature of the ebook reader. And the Sync feature requires that you have logged into your Sony account. Annoying!

So, let me reiterate: In order to get the most of your ebook reader, you have to have a Sony account and be logged in. Thus far, this is my major annoyance with the ebook reader.

Tor ebooks going DRM-Free

I recently got a hold of an ebook reader. Not to purchase ebooks, but to aid me as a tabletop roleplaying tool. The reason that I did not plan on purchasing ebooks is because of Digital Rights Management (DRM). Whenever I want to read a book I paid for, the ebook reader has to make sure I am not some filthy thief, often by contacting a server provided by the store.

And many vendors (I’m looking at you, Amazon) would want to lock me into using their electronic gadget to read their ebooks. And if the thing broke? Well, I would have to get a new one from the exact same vendor … or lose access to my purchases. And if they were to go out of business, or shut down the authentication servers for some reason, I would lose access to the books I paid for. Moving to another vendor would also be difficult as conversion can be both difficult, time consuming and maybe even illegal. This comic illustrates the issue.

As noted by Charles Stross, this is not only harmful for the customer, it is also harmful for the publishers. Notably, it has allowed Amazon to gain a virtual monopoly on ebook supply as well as a monopsony on being the distributor as well. So, Amazon is well on its way to being able to dictate terms to publishers and customers alike. If publishers want to break Amazons dominance, they have to lower the bar for independent stores to sell ebooks. This requires going DRM-Free.

The people at Tor Books must have come to a similar conclusion. A few days back, they announced that come July, they are going DRM-Free on their ebooks. So, there is a good chance that I am going to be using that ebook reader to … well … read ebooks. Thanks, Tor.

Bulk conversion using LibreOffice

I do a lot of tabletop roleplaying. As a Game Master, I play with two different groups in the same world. The oldest running campaign has been running for more than a decade. The notes populate more than three large binders. As we do not play at my flat, it is infeasible for me to carry all that to the game. Rather, I try to pick out the important portions and leave the rest be.

A significant portion of my notes are stored on my computer in different formats. The newer documents are stored as odts, but older documents were created using various versions of WordPad and Word.

Over the last few years, the quality and functionality of ebook readers have been improving. Most of these handle formats like pdf. So, if I could convert my notes to pdf, I could bring an ebook reader with all the notes that I did not have room for in my bag. Some of the better ebook readers I have been looking at, even allow adding notes and handwriting as a new layer to existing pdfs, so I can make notes in the documents during play.

But I still need to convert all my files to pdf. There are more than 200 files involved, so doing it by hand is way to time consuming (and nigh impossible to maintain). My office program of choice, LibreOffice, comes with a nifty command line utility that is able to convert files from one format to another. Unfortunately, LibreOffice does not currently support bulk conversion on Windows.

And then there are all the custom needs, things that would be nice:

• Keeping the same folder structure
• Copying time stamps from the original file to the copy
• Sync of files that are not odts (e.g. maps)
• Ability to set metadata for generated pdfs

In the end, I wrote my own little utility program in .NET that have those features. It’s available on Sourceforge. LibreOffice 3.5 is required, but not bundled. The screenshot below shows the user interface.

Screenshot of the Bulk Converter Using LibreOffice utility. The upper part of the window is used to configure what the bulk converter should do. Move your mouse over the different options to get more information on what it does. The big, white space in the bottom is a text box that is used to write output from the converter. Press Go to start and Cancel to stop the current run.

As noted above, the utility only supports conversions from doc to odt and from odt to pdf. LibreOffice supports a lot of conversions that I have not enabled. Partly because I do not use them, and partly because it would require extensive testing to enable all of them. But I am open for requests

Skyrim Review

According to Steam, I have played The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim for more than 190 hours. Thus far, I have enjoyed playing Skyrim. If you enjoyed Morrowind, Oblivion or Fallout 3, you are likely to enjoy Skyrim as well. I will not be giving Skyrim a grade, as grades seldom give a good picture of a game (or anything else for that matter).

This review is PC centric, as I game on PC only. If you are playing on the PC, you have an extra option to improve the things you do not like: User made modifications (mods). At time of writing the Construction Kit is close to release, but even without it some 6000 mods have been released on Skyrim Nexus.

Map

Mountain with a view over a city and the surrounding land.

Skyrim is huge. Really. There are lots of places to explore. Many of these places have a history and semi-hidden side quests that can be found by investigating at the environment. Clutter can tell a story for those who look. The exploration of Skyrim is where the game really shines, and is at its most enjoyable. There are a number of carriages that can take you between the cities, and it is possible to fast travel to a location once it is discovered. These features are quite convenient, but they should not be over used, if you want to get the most out of Skyrim.

There are lots of wild life (even foxes and bunnies), most of which will ignore or flee from you. Predators will attack, all to often on sight, which is a bit annoying.

There is another very welcome change: Climbing has been vastly improved. There are almost no invisible barriers, and it is very possible to scale many mountains. Much, much better than in Oblivion.

The Dwemer ruins from Morrowind are back, populated by automatons and Falmer. With them comes a number of investigation quests. Unlike Morrowind and Oblivion, most of the dungeons are one-way with a few side tunnels and a quick exit. Convenient, fun, but also immersion-breaking. There are also generous amounts of potions, and no need to use torches. Again.

The Dwemer Ruins are back!

Level scaling

Still exists, but it is closer to Fallout 3 than to Oblivion. Once you enter an area, it will lock to your level. So, if it is too difficult and you come back later, it will still be the same level. Some areas or enemies have a particular level range, so e.g. a Sabre Cat will always be dangerous to a low level character.

Bandits will seldom use advanced armor (the boss bandit may wear powerful, leveled armor, though), but it is less obvious. Except in dragon fights as dragons are leveled (there is a mod for deadlier, unleveled dragons).

Vendor inventory changes due to your level. Sic. Way to make gold useful early on. Like in Oblivion, the merchant inventories are placed in unreachable locations, so thieves can only loot the items on display.

Cities

Cities are similar in size to Oblivion, and the walled cities seem to be in their own world space. Unfortunately, there are too few NPCs in the cities (why did they not use generic NPCs like in Fallout 3?). It seems that the number of guards is similar to the number of citizens in the city, which is a bit … off.

When you hire a carriage to go from one city to the next, you are not transported after paying the driver. You have to board the carriage first. You can travel to all cities, but not all cities have carriages.

There are bards in the inns who actually sing a few tunes, which gives a nice mood. But it would be nice if there were a few more people in the inn, e.g. a random traveler, a hunter or a mercenary celebrating surviving another job. On a more positive note, the interior cells respawn every 30 days (or some such), so if you loot a merchant cell, its contents will respawn at some point. You can also find chickens and cattle in the cities.

As should be clear from trailers and screenshots, the habitats of Skyrim are inspired by look and feel of the viking era. Not as outlandish as Morrowind, but definitely more interesting than the cities of Cyrodiil.

Quests

There are an absurd number of quests in Skyrim, some of which are randomly generated. As in previous installments of The Elder Scrolls, there are a number of quest lines and a large number of side quests. Depending on your play style, you may also run into a lot of characters that are essential to a certain quest, and, hence, cannot be killed. Even if the quest has finished.

Side Quests

There are lots and lots of side quests. People that hire you to do something, or clues that you find. Many of the side quests are pretty bland, with few actual choices. Many if not most of the quests are of the type “Go into that dungeon and get that artifact or kill that boss”. The deadric quests blend into the game much better than in Oblivion, and are overall some of the more interesting ones … like in Oblivion.

Quest Lines

The quest lines are a number of quests related to a particular faction, e.g. the Thieves Guild, or a particular issue, e.g. the return of the dragons or the civil war. The civil war quest line differs from previous TES games by giving the player the ability to chose sides. Furthermore, neither of the sides are without merit or flaw. This is a good thing, and much appreciated.

However, most of the quest lines railroad you, like in Oblivion. There are little in terms of meaningful choices: In most cases the influence of the player is limited to “do or don’t do the quest”. Many of the quest lines are inflated by requiring the player to go into yet another dungeon to get to the next semi-scripted cut scene. Coupled with the lack of choice, it is easy to lose interest 2/3 way through the quests. Which is sad, because there are some breathtaking scenery as well as some good ideas. And I have often experienced that the ending of the quest lines did not feel like a climax, nor did the reward feel well placed. All to often it made little sense to keep playing after finishing a quest line.

If your attack kills an opponent, you may be shown a finisher, a cinematic of your killing blow.

After finishing a quest line, you may experience some strangeness as some quests were not written to take your accomplishments into account. E.g. after finishing the main quest and killing some 40 dragons this guard tries to shake me down!

NPCs

I like the voice acting in Skyrim better than in Oblivion. Many NPCs are pretty bland, but this is mostly due to not having enough dialog. Some may surprise you, though. The persuasion minigame has been removed, and when persuasion, intimidation or bribes are needed it is available through dialog. As it should be. One annoying feature is that NPCs start talking to you if you are in their vicinity. Even during quest-related speeches. Bad. Cipscis made a mod to reduce the talking distance.

Followers

The good news is that there are loads of followers. Some will follow you if you solve a quest for them, others can be bought. The bad news is that most of them are pretty boring, with little dialog and seldom more than a short quest that you need to complete before getting them. There is also a bug that causes their number of HP and Stamina not to level when you do (there is a workaround for that). Followers are semi-essential. When they reach zero HP they kneel, and if they get more damage, they die.

Horses work pretty much like in Oblivion, except that they aren’t very fast. Strangely, horses are incredible climbers. Horses can carry you when you are over encumbered, but there are no saddlebags. There is no fighting from horseback, but horses seem quite aggressive – my horses usually end up dead when they charge some powerful monster. Horses are cheap, but not really worth the hassle of keeping them alive.

UI

The UI is a console port. For the most part it works reasonably well, but sometimes the UI gets confused most likely because you have multiple input units (keyboard and mouse), so e.g. during a conversation it may choose another reply than the one you tried to choose. Quite annoying when it happens. There are a few UI mods that work well, but none of them fixes the issue above. Dialog and crafting happen in real time, so they will no longer freze the game.

Flame atronachs are one of the type of creatures that you can encounter or summon.

Lockpicking

The lockpicking minigame is modelled over the Fallout 3 minigame, without the skill requirements. This means that if you take your time, you can open any lock. The lockpicking perks are mostly there to reduce the annoyance of the minigame. However, the game is frozen during lockpicking, so you can lockpick while someone is trying to chop your head off. Also, if you successfully sneak before starting, you will not get caught.

Journal

There is a journal that you can use to keep track of active and completed quests. You can activate (or deactivate) a quest to show (or hide) map markers for the next objective. Unfortunately, only the note for the current quest stage is shown, which makes it difficult to review your clues. It is not possible to write notes yourself.

Map

If you fully explore a dungeon, it will be marked as “Cleared” on your map, which is a useful feature. It is also possible to place a marker on the map that will show up on your compass. This is useful if you want to find a location not previously visited, and you do not wish to open the map all the time. The map is quite beautiful, but roads are not marked. Fortunately, Ice Penguin made a mod so that the in-game map does have roads.

The Player Character

The number of skills has been reduced (again), but in my view it is more cutting away the unnecessary fat than “dumbing down” the game for casual gamers.

Leveling

There are no classes, and you get to follow celestrial signs by finding the standing stone for that sign. This has the advantage that you just start playing, and you end up getting good at the things you do. This gives a nice, natural flow where you just play the game. The flip side is that your startings skills are decided by race, not by your background.

As you gather experience, you gain levels. Each level gives you a bonus to either Magicka (used for magic), Health (Hit points) or Stamina (expended during fights and affects carry weight).

Skyrim comes with a number of ways to customize your characters looks, e.g. war paint, scars and beards.

As you level, you chose perks, and this is where you specialize. Unfortunately, some perks are overpowered while others are useless, so some rebalance is needed. Furthermore, many skills seem to have little effect unless one gets the skill perks (Lockpicking is the worst in this regard).

Character appearance

There are a number of templates (10 for each race/gender) that are pretty good starting points for making your character. You can choose scars, war paint, beards and body width. The face sliders work pretty well (but still no undo button), and the hair/eye color options are quite limited. The normal maps for the faces are a bit blocky, particularly visible on the nose and chin (mods like this one fix this issue). There are no in-game ways to change war paint or hair do, and the ShowRaceMenu console command has some issues.

Crafting

There are loads of crafting options. Aside from the classics (Alchemy and Enchanting), you can smith and improve weapons and armor, mine and smelt ore, chop wood and cook food. And you can see yourself while you are doing it (but still not when going to sleep). Skillbased crafting gets a bit overpowered if you grind it, just like in Morrowind and Oblivion.

Bugs

So far, I have experienced one gamebreaking bug (fixed by reload) and 4 crashes to desktop (all with the 1.2 patch). I have experienced few minor bugs (aside from the resistance bug introduced with the 1.2 patch). So, for me, Skyrim has been the least buggy Bethesda game to date. There are, however, a large number of minor and major bugs in the game, so it is recommended to use the Unofficial Patch whenever it comes out.