Monthly Archives: July 2017

Last April, Paradox Interactive released the first major expansion to their May 2016 4X real-time strategy game "Stellaris." It was a great game at launch, allowing players to live out their fantasies of galactic conquest through a robust, if somewhat simplistic, system of resource management, political maneuvering, and gratuitous space battles. Copious amounts of well-written science fiction pieces accompanied every major event, making the whole experience feel like a cross between a choose-your-own-adventure novel and a strategy sim on par with Firaxis well-respected Civilization series. In April, Paradox Interactive released two major additions to the game: one, a free patch updating the game to version 1.6 codenamed Banks, and the other a paid expansion adding additional gameplay and narrative content to the game called Stellaris: Utopia. Utopia builds on the changes made in Banks, so Ill talk about both here.

In "Stellaris," your mission is to guide your civilizationeither a predefined race or a self-created oneto galactic greatness. At the outset, youre equipped with only two ships: one for obtaining resources, and one for exploring the vast cosmos. After making progress on the games truly staggering research tree, you will colonize new planets and make contact with alien lifeforms.

Unfortunately, alien contact is perhaps the least satisfying element of "Stellaris" as diplomacy is extremely limited. You can choose to wage war on another race, insult them to worsen relations, trade with them, create or join a Federation, or attempt to Vassalize them (or, if theyre strong enough, ask to become their Vassal).

In theory, these might be all the actions required to simulate a fun, if not true-to-life, version of diplomacy. But the options are often not nuanced enough to be useful in gameplay. For example, although you can offer colonized planets to other nations as part of trade deals, you cannot ask them for the same. If a planet has already been colonized by another empire, the only to attain it is through war. This limitation means that towards the late-game, when most systems are under the control of one empire or another, the only way to expand an empire is war. By this point, diplomacy in Stellaris isnt just lackluster, but actively annoying.

The original "Stellaris" also suffered from a lack of interesting mid-to-late game content and a user interface that didnt provide enough functionality. Without Utopia or the accompanying Banks update, micromanaging perhaps dozens of units to explore and study the galaxy in the late-game lost the excitement of the early-game. Instead of an exercise in decision-making and the wonder of discovery, the micromanagement of Science Ships to explore the universe, scan solar systems for resources or habitable worlds, and research anomalies becomes an annoying distraction from the more interesting events that occur as your empire becomes more powerful and the galaxy grows older.

Though diplomacy remains for the most part basic, "Stellaris: Utopia and the 1.6 Banks update released alongside it for the base game is a literal game-changer in almost every part of gameplay. Banks provided much-needed polish to the user interface, and indeed changed the structure of the game itself in too many subtle but important ways to count. It also entirely reworked the initially simplistic Government system into one which allowed the player to make more interesting decisions.

The most interesting change in Banks was the introduction of factions, which represent the political reality that not all members of an empire will believe in the same things. Your empire could be materialistic and warmongering, but anywhere from a few to most of your population might instead be collectivist and pacifist. Your responses to the factions and events which occur in your empire will create and influence factions. This makes your empire feel much more alive, and makes you think twice about unilaterally deciding to start wars or engage in gene modification.

The Utopia expansion works to build on these changes and diversify the players control over the narrative of their empire, as well as adding events to the galaxy which contributes to the overall story of the world you inhabit in "Stellaris. Utopia adds a host of late-game upgrades called Ascension Perks which give the player something constructive to work towards after their empire reaches its late-game stage, but before the galactic crisesany one of a number of what are essentially game-ending surprisesstart to emerge. This makes the late-game experience much more consistent, and allows the player to continue to develop the narrative of their species by focusing on, well, ascending, in one of a variety of ways. If you focused on computer technologies and artificial intelligence, you might replace your species with a race of technologically enhanced organics; if you focused on gene modification, your entire race might evolve into a superior form with upgraded statistics and new bonuses.

Utopia also introduces a number of megastructures to the game, which are special stations with incredible build costs but high rewards. You can build habitable planetoids, Dyson Spheres, and other wacky contraptions straight out of science fiction. This helps to address the problem of late-game expansion that I mentioned earlierwhere you lose the ability to expand your population as the number of unclaimed habitable worlds approaches zero, and prohibitively expensive terraforming operations become tediousthough it doesnt quite make up for the inadequacies of the diplomatic system. It comes pretty close, though.

Ive poured many, many hours into "Stellaris, and I can tell you that its worth your time. Performance tends to sharply drop towards the late game, as the engine has to simulate more and more AI movement and the number of calculations it has to make increases, but there are whispers that performance might be improved with later patches. The developers are still very much engaged with the game, and maintain an active Facebook presence, posting Dev Diaries every so often to keep fans apprised of design decisions and to provide teasers of new features. The modding scene, particularly on Steam, is vibrant, with everything from a Rick and Morty empire to a total-conversion Star Trek mod available for download, for free. All in all, its a great game, and with the Steam Summer Sale in full swing theres never been a better time to get it.

Stellaris is normally $39.99 on Steam, but is discounted to $19.99 until July 5th. Stellaris: Utopia is normally $19.99, but until July 5th is discounted to $17.99.

Staff writer Noah F. Houghton can be reached at noah.houghton@thecrimson.com.

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Originally posted here:

War and Peace in Space: 'Stellaris: Utopia' Enhances Galactic Empire Sim - Harvard Crimson

Tuesday, July 4, 2017

By Diana Thorn, Carpinteria

On July 4, we will celebrate the birth and independence of our nation. Many of us will go to parades, barbecue or othercelebrations.

However, will we reflect on the true meaning of the day? Will we remember the founders ideal of limited government based on natural law, and their warnings about the dangers of an overreaching federal government? Will we remember that they gave us a government that combined responsibility and accountability? Is this happeningtoday?

On July 4, it is time to take an honest look at the state of our country. For starters, what has happened to our civil society? Everywhere you look, there is corruption, violence, and lawlessness. And what about the dishonest media, threats against our president, and shutting down freespeech?

Furthermore, what has happened to our representative republic? We see creeping progressivism, socialism, and unrealistic utopian ideas rearing their uglyheads.

America, it is time to wake up. It is time to rediscover what America is all about. A good start would be to read Mark Levins new book, Rediscover Americanism.

Happy 4th ofJuly.

Be succinct, constructive, and relevant to the story. Leaving a comment means you agree to our Discussion Guidelines. We like civilized discourse. We don't like spam, lying, profanity, harassment or personal attacks.

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Ugly Utopia - Santa Barbara Independent

Renowned Aboriginal artist Kathleen Ngale is living rough in Utopia homelands. CREDIT: ABC

The well-known 87-year-old artist sleeps rough in a pile of blankets surrounded by dogs to keep her warm.

CALLS are growing to help an 87-year-old artist who is sleeping rough with a dozen dogs to keep her warm in a region known as Utopia.

Kathleen Ngale whose work has been exhibited in New York, London and Paris lives in heartbreaking conditions lying on a pile of blankets in Camel Camp, around 260 kilometres northeast of Alice Springs. She cannot walk or wash herself and has to wait for people to bring her small amounts of food.

I sit here hungry sometimes, and we sit here with nothing, she told the ABC in a heartbreaking video. My leg is no good I just wait for little bits of food and I cant go and wash myself when I feel like it.

Kathleen Ngale, a well-known artist, sleeps rough in a pile of blankets surrounded by dogs to keep her warm.Source:ABC

Ms Ngales primary carer is her husband, also in his 80s, and she is occasionally visited by a nurse based around 50km away, and receives weekly deliveries of soup, according to her granddaughter Denisa.

Her relative Rosalie Kunoth-Monks told the broadcaster there needed to be better aged care for Aboriginal people in the region, and that Ms Ngale should have a wheelchair and be able to wash her clothes.

The Federal Government funds the Barkly Shire Council, based in Tennant Creek about 400km away, to provide aged care services in Utopia. Acting CEO Chris Wright told the ABC meals were provided daily in the main homeland in Arlparra but only every few days in the remoter areas, with just one full-time worker and several part-time staff members serving several hundred kilometres.

The frail 87-year-old cannot walk or wash herself and says she sometimes goes hungry.Source:ABC

Ms Kunoth-Monks claimed in April last year that elderly people were starving because of a lack of daily meals, but her allegation was dismissed as mischief-making and political grandstanding by the president of the Barkly Shire Council.

She alleged that the whole community including children and the elderly go without food, often on a daily basis and that one elderly man with end-stage Parkinsons disease had received a package containing two packets of horrible-looking mince meat and white bread which was like eating paper with no nutritional value, while two neighbouring elderly women received nothing.

Ms Kunoth-Monks characterised the packages as the bare minimum to sustain life.

What I saw appalled me, even my dogs are fed a hell of a lot better than old black people are being fed, she told AAP.

See the original post:

Well-known artist sleeping on ground with a dozen dogs for warmth - NEWS.com.au

Updated July 05, 2017 17:32:27

Her paintings have been exhibited in Paris, London, New York, Tokyo and Milan. But in her old age, renowned Aboriginal artist Kathleen Ngale lives on a mattress outdoors, unable to walk, kept warm during cold desert winter nights by about a dozen dogs who sleep alongside her.

Ms Ngale, aged about 87, lives at Camel Camp where she was born, an outstation in the remote Utopia region of Central Australia, about 260 kilometres north-east of Alice Springs.

"I sit here hungry sometimes, and we sit here with nothing," she said in Anmatyerre via an interpreter.

"My leg is no good I just wait for little bits of food and I can't go and wash myself when I feel like it."

Her relative Rosalie Kunoth-Monks has deplored her living conditions and is calling for improvements to be made to aged care for the elderly Aboriginal people of the region.

"She is lying with the warmth of the dogs on that mattress," Ms Kunoth-Monks said.

"How she's living now, you would not put your worst enemy through that ... It's a slow death."

She said Ms Ngale was rarely able to shower or have her bed linen changed, and her husband, aged also in his 80s, was her primary carer.

Ms Ngale's granddaughter Denisa said she was occasionally visited by a nurse from the Urpantja Clinic, located about 50 kilometres away, and that there were weekly deliveries of soup.

"If there is aged care, this old lady should be able to have a wheelchair, she should be able to have her clothes washed," Ms Kunoth-Monks said.

"There should be a laundromat here where they can wash, they don't mind putting in two dollars or whatever and doing that.

"But we are at the absolute lowest level of poverty here at communities like this."

The Federal Government funds the Barkly Shire Council, headquartered in Tennant Creek about 400km away, to provide aged care services in Utopia, a region consisting of 16 homelands and outstations spread out over several hundred kilometres.

The service chiefly consists of meal deliveries, which are provided daily in the main homeland in Arlparra, but drops off to once every few days in the remoter areas, as there is only one full-time worker and a few part-time local staff funded to cover the region, acting CEO Chris Wright said.

"Not just aged care, but all the services we're expected to provide in that particular community are just not adequate," he said.

"Our base problem is just simply the nature of the community it's big, it's widespread, there's huge distances to travel, and the conventional funding models don't fit that particular community.

"I guess the opportunity is to figure out, 'okay, how can services be more adequately provided to a community of outstations that are as far as 150 miles apart?'"

There are about 15 aged people effectively sleeping rough in the community, including a 92-year-old woman living in a humpy, said Michael Gravener, CEO of the Urpantja Aboriginal Corporation.

"It's total impoverishment, total disempowerment, and they should be honoured as some of the greats of this country, being the oldest-surviving owners of this amazing country," he said.

"It's just sad that we've neglected those people."

Mr Gravener said entrenched poverty and a lack of funding made it difficult to improve circumstances for Utopia's residents.

"We're dealing with people who are told to get up and work, to get on with their lives, who live in absolute poverty, absolute homelessness, chronic overcrowding, and we're [saying], 'hey, you've got to get your act together and come and live like us'," he said.

"The reality is, if you haven't got the basics to start with, you're not going to get anywhere.

"Things like housing, food security, someone caring decently for them. They'll criticise people like the carers for Kathleen but if you're impoverished yourself, how are you going to do that?"

He said Aboriginal people living on homelands had been found in studies to be in better health than those living in cities or regional hubs, but said they needed more support to continue to do so.

"Homelands have never been given an opportunity to survive or to grow because they're always being given little bits of funds, and you can't do that," he said.

"You can't keep playing catch-up when you want to develop into a productive, sustainable, economically viable, socially viable community."

He said Ms Ngale's living conditions needed no embellishment: "It's shocking enough as it is, she shouldn't be like that," he said.

"She should be living in the homeland, she should be given the best of care and respected for the person she is. She's a unique Australian."

Mr Wright said the elderly of Utopia were living where they wanted to be, on country.

"I understand [Ms Ngale's] living on the veranda, that's where she wants to be, that's fine. People have their choices and apparently her choice is to live in the way that she lives," he said.

He said there was "definitely" the opportunity for her to be brought to Arlparra to spend time at the aged care centre.

He said that despite its issues, the region was unique, and services should be bolstered for the homelands rather than centralised in hub communities.

"It's a stunning place; I can understand why the elderly want to stay on their homelands, because it is special," he said.

"We're talking about Australia's original people, I think they deserve the respect and the resources to be able to continue to live on what is their customary land."

Topics: aged-care, community-and-society, government-and-politics, indigenous-aboriginal-and-torres-strait-islander, alice-springs-0870, darwin-0800

First posted July 05, 2017 06:36:10

Excerpt from:

Utopia: Aboriginal elderly sleeping on ground with dogs amid calls for improved aged care - ABC Online