General Discussion Thread of DOOM

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I am aiming for a graphic Novel because I tend to have a more visual oriented approach to coming up with stories than a literary one. I am actually kind of ADD with that kind of thing, I can easily read a 1000+ pages book but I just don't have the patience to write everything down. My scripts tend to be very minimalist in descriptions, they are usually just dialogue and small descriptions of actions and then I start thinking the composition of panels.
 
Walpknut said:
I am aiming for a graphic Novel because I tend to have a more visual oriented approach to coming up with stories than a literary one. I am actually kind of ADD with that kind of thing, I can easily read a 1000+ pages book but I just don't have the patience to write everything down. My scripts tend to be very minimalist in descriptions, they are usually just dialogue and small descriptions of actions and then I start thinking the composition of panels.
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Hah, I'm the other way around. I have a hard time reading big blocks of text, it requires a lot of focus. The list of books I've actually finished is rather short, but writing is something that feels very natural.

When I wrote, I worked like a complete slob, I would fill old envelopes and notepads and bills with various ideas and notes, while keeping detailed planning to a bare minimum.
(I actually don't even know when I wrote each book, so... if I ever get published, nobody - not even me - will know when the books were actually written, only approximations :D Years blur together, and I never thought of actually pinpointing dates. I know many artists are much more concious about such stuff, signing, dating, etc)
For the comic book, I have made several lists on excel that I am revising and completing more and more, lately it is finally taking a more coherent shape.
I feel the need to plan more here, since drawing is so permanent - what I draw, I can't un-draw - while in writing, I can easily delete entire pages, and re-arrange stuff if need be.
 
I plan the setting in advance too... which is the reason I am still writting the script for the graphic novel. There was just no other way to have it all down for use later, I had to force myself to write the character sheets, the lore of the initial city, the relationships between characters and even a personal pipe project of mine for the comic: Coming up the specific brands and franchises that characters would interact with, I gave myself the rule of not using any existing brand of anything ever, all the clothes, restaurants, cellphones and stores will have a brand made by me, which is fun, but also kind of a stupid thing to waste focus on.
 
Walpknut said:
I plan the setting in advance too... which is the reason I am still writting the script for the graphic novel. There was just no other way to have it all down for use later, I had to force myself to write the character sheets, the lore of the initial city, the relationships between characters and even a personal pipe project of mine for the comic: Coming up the specific brands and franchises that characters would interact with, I gave myself the rule of not using any existing brand of anything ever, all the clothes, restaurants, cellphones and stores will have a brand made by me, which is fun, but also kind of a stupid thing to waste focus on.
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I tend to prefer real life brands and institutions, but I've saved myself here by setting the story to near 4000AD (which is not going to be typically futuristic, just cus I don't want it to be, I also don't have all that much faith in fantastic future innovations. It'll be a post-apo setting, where volcanic pressures have caused Iceland to explode (sorry Iceland!) and 500 years later, the world population has risen to 150 million. As a result, most people are rural, and "tribal" warfare between towns and regions are much more common, resembling medieval conditions. The main source of energy is now solar, and is exported by a great federation covering most of Sahara)
Most of the story will take place in the northern hemisphere though, I'll have to draw a lot of conifer forests... :D
I chose to blow up Iceland simply because nuclear war is overdone (and not as destructive as most fiction wants it to be), I wanted the world to have started almost from scratch, so I was left between a massive meteor strike, and a world-destroying volcanic super eruption. I chose the latter!
(In fact, in my world-lore, the world has experienced several world- and nuclear wars before the Icelandic eruption. None of these wars did much to decimate humanity the way the volcanic eruption did)

I did some preliminary character sheets, but allready the data feels irrelevant
This is something that plagues me, and that I have to conciously work to avoid: Planning too much bores me! It feels as if I've "heard it all before", as if I've "spoilered" myself. So I try to limit micromanagement in planning, and only work on larger outlines. But yeah, in the comic book planning I am forced to be more detailed.
 
I decided to listen, again, to the Jonestown Death Tape, for something I'm working on - and just as it was when I first listened to it years ago, it remains the most terrifying piece of audio I know of. Most people won't really realize why. But I'd recommend to everyone here that, at least once, they learn about the story and listen to the tape from start to finish, as it is an horrific reminder of what can happen if we, as a society, are careless, and that every day there are things happening in the world several times scarier than the worst fiction could dream of being. It's absolutely haunting, with Jones' words, the reactions of people, the sounds of the children screaming as they die towards the end, the entire thing is a snapshot of one of the most destructive moments in human history. And you know, I hear a lot of people joking about the incident, using "drink the Kool-Aid" as a normal expression, and acting like all those people were simply crazy cultists and that no adult in their right minds would allow that to happen to themselves. But none of that is true.

The reality is, everyone who joined the People's Temple was just a normal, mentally healthy person like you and me. You could just as easily have been one of them if you had gone through the same stuff. Brainwashing, social control, political engineering, that is what caused the tragedy. The control methods used by Jim Jones, if you take the time to research them in depth, are quite fascinating to understand. Sleep deprivation, psychological warfare. Sexual assault and violence, not as ends to themselves, but as manners to establish command. Jones would wake these people up in the middle of the night to have suicide drills the same way we have fire drills. No matter how smart or well-educated you were, if you had been in the wrong situation at the wrong moment, it could have easily happened to you as well and you wouldn't have noticed - I say that for everyone here, and I include myself as well. In fact we're psychologically manipulated constantly, by the media, by commerce, by our peers, we just don't notice because those are fairly harmless. But it happens. If you try to claim that these people were crazy and, in effect, you aren't and wouldn't ever be a part of something like this, you're exactly the sort of person who could get stuck in something like this. One of the best defenses against psychological trauma of this nature is knowing that you, as a human, are susceptible to it. Blaming it on religion, sickness, or just being crazy pushes the blame to a factor that you personally feel safer with. Don't do this. Don't let that be the lesson you learn from Jonestown.

Learn this lesson: we are all frail and weak and can be manipulated. Every single one of us.
 
Stone Cold Robert House said:
I decided to listen, again, to the Jonestown Death Tape, for something I'm working on - and just as it was when I first listened to it years ago, it remains the most terrifying piece of audio I know of. Most people won't really realize why. But I'd recommend to everyone here that, at least once, they learn about the story and listen to the tape from start to finish, as it is an horrific reminder of what can happen if we, as a society, are careless, and that every day there are things happening in the world several times scarier than the worst fiction could dream of being. It's absolutely haunting, with Jones' words, the reactions of people, the sounds of the children screaming as they die towards the end, the entire thing is a snapshot of one of the most destructive moments in human history. And you know, I hear a lot of people joking about the incident, using "drink the Kool-Aid" as a normal expression, and acting like all those people were simply crazy cultists and that no adult in their right minds would allow that to happen to themselves. But none of that is true.

The reality is, everyone who joined the People's Temple was just a normal, mentally healthy person like you and me. You could just as easily have been one of them if you had gone through the same stuff. Brainwashing, social control, political engineering, that is what caused the tragedy. The control methods used by Jim Jones, if you take the time to research them in depth, are quite fascinating to understand. Sleep deprivation, psychological warfare. Sexual assault and violence, not as ends to themselves, but as manners to establish command. Jones would wake these people up in the middle of the night to have suicide drills the same way we have fire drills. No matter how smart or well-educated you were, if you had been in the wrong situation at the wrong moment, it could have easily happened to you as well and you wouldn't have noticed - I say that for everyone here, and I include myself as well. In fact we're psychologically manipulated constantly, by the media, by commerce, by our peers, we just don't notice because those are fairly harmless. But it happens. If you try to claim that these people were crazy and, in effect, you aren't and wouldn't ever be a part of something like this, you're exactly the sort of person who could get stuck in something like this. One of the best defenses against psychological trauma of this nature is knowing that you, as a human, are susceptible to it. Blaming it on religion, sickness, or just being crazy pushes the blame to a factor that you personally feel safer with. Don't do this. Don't let that be the lesson you learn from Jonestown.

Learn this lesson: we are all frail and weak and can be manipulated. Every single one of us.
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I heard that tape in its entirety a few years ago, and you're right, it is... deeply fascinating, and troubling, and sad! To say the least.
I also think about the actual Jonestown, as part of locking people into the cult - you create for people a path, that is real, physical, and has flourishing results - buildings, gardens, a physical community. It's not like unsubscribing to a magazine, or simply deciding not to attend to church meetings.

In fact we're psychologically manipulated constantly, by the media, by commerce, by our peers, we just don't notice because those are fairly harmless. But it happens.
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I said this somewhere else on this forum, just yesterday! We think ourselves so concious, so impervious to psychological probing. In the end, we are animals with brains and we react to words and language. I can tell you to buy a chocolate, or I can tell you NOT to buy a chocolate, either way, I just made you think of chocolate, and that's the first step. Ads on tv are even banal, it's just "hey you, buy this!" and this has the desired effect (which is to secure a certain percentage of listeners, to RUN off to buy. Not all! But a near-guaranteed percentage!)
Once you really refine your rethorics - and take them outside legal confinements (advertisement on tv is under a lot of regulation), it becomes even easyer.
And like you said, it's never because we are dumb. We are humans, we're the most intelligent thing in the universe, even the dumbest among us. It's because we listen and react to words.
 
I’ve had this idea for a story about a man who wakes up, goes to a restaurant with his friends, and finds out that the restaurant serves human meat, and shit. Soon enough, he finds out that the entire world is anthropophagous, and he has trouble finding any normal foods (fruits, vegetables, beast meat &c.). His character would turn crazier (and skinnier) over time because he’s so resistant to assimilating into an anthropophagous society.


It’s a story about what it’s like to feel completely isolated and alienated.
 
Romanophile said:
I’ve had this idea for a story about a man who wakes up, goes to a restaurant with his friends, and finds out that the restaurant serves human meat, and shit. Soon enough, he finds out that the entire world is anthropophagous, and he has trouble finding any normal foods (fruits, vegetables, beast meat &c.). His character would turn crazier (and skinnier) over time because he’s so resistant to assimilating into an anthropophagous society.


It’s a story about what it’s like to feel completely isolated and alienated.
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Sounds like a good idea for a short story, but great kudos to you, if you manage to stretch it into a novel!
I have a lot of respect for minimalistic concepts. One unfinished (and unlikely to ever be finished) project I wrote was an epilogue to my space opera, where a single protagonist (who by then is unable to age, and therefore practically immortal, so long as he eats and hydrates) stuck on a seemingly empty alien vessel, that is not scaled for humans (he is dwarfed by all the features)

He is completely stuck here, teleported by a random, barely explained event, and begins to - at first unknowingly - "plant" fungus around the vessel, brought in his filthy beard and clothes. Over time, he begins to lick this mold off the walls, as a minimum form of nutrition. He can find a lot of water in various depots, but he ends up contaminating every compartment he explores over time.
As time passes, a lot of time, he begins to phase in and out of conciousness, presumably centuries pass while he dozes out, and the fungus around him begins to spread, grow and evolve. There is never any sign of the operators of the vessel, and he presumes they are long dead, a failed space-mission of sorts, and he begins to accustomize himself with being a lone emperor in a world of fungus
He has experience with isolation for milennia, but it's long ago, and he is "out of training", but little by little, he also begins to control his own hallucinations in order to not go mad with lonelyness

As you can imagine, the concept became increasingly difficult to keep alive - and even more difficult to keep a point to the whole story :D
 
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Wait a second! When Arya names Jaqen H'Ghar - why does this worry him so much? Why is this a trump-move, that he is forced to obey? He isn't Jaqen! He has no name, he is no one

IN YOUR FACE GEORGE!!!
 
I woke up this morning with a congested throat, like I was sick again, but my nostrils aren’t any worse than usual. I’m guessing that I’m becoming ill due to indirect contact, possibly with my niece. My head hurts, too.


When I first signed up here, I was having diarrhea almost constantly. My stomach was frequently upset, so I was careful not to eat grand meals. I’m still being careful, because I feel like I can’t digest much food.


And my shitposting in The Order… I mean, it seems pretty pathetic that I’d let several forum posts ruin my day, and I guess that I shouldn’t be surprised since I was basically ‘asking for it,’ but they probably don’t know (or don’t care) that I have depression. I’ve had it for several years.

Apparently, there’s no ground for dumping shitposts (except for the vats, which is locked anyway).

Some days I wish that I could sleep forever.
 
DOOM is pretty much the place for shitposting. Not the bad kind, just random talk.
As for tO, you don't want to shitpost there, at least not yet. Certainly not the way you did.
 
Yeah, it's a bit of an abrasive place, especially to newcomers. Don't take it too harshly, it happens to everyone.
 
If you come to the Order prepared to get Quaffed on a bit. You might notice the Vats and PoS are near the bottom of the forum as well. That is the indicator that badness lurks below the surface of NMA. Think of Mos Eisley Cantina.

This thread needs some motherloving love so feel free to shitpost (talk about whatever) as you please. Don't take things personally though.
 
I must admit, as a newcomer I'm struggling a bit to understand what each section of the forum is.

So far I'm restricting myself to the obviously safe parts. I think I get what "The Order" may be, no idea about the Vats...

Is there some kind of post explaining it all somewhere, and that I would have missed being the plophead that I normally am?

Edit: Ok, think I got it, I went back to the board rules, turns out the Vats are just some kind of recycle bin if I get it correctly.
 
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Vats is the garbage waste of NMA. Locked threads, offensive posts by (usually) banned users, shit like that.
General Discussion, General Gaming - that's where most non-Fallout/Wasteland fun is at - those two have its own section and subsections. There's News part of NMA too, but you've probably seen it.
There's modding community, which is self-explanatory - feel free to drop by there, loads of kewl stuff being developed even if updates aren't that regular.
Aside from The Order, the rest is pretty much relics from the past. And tO...well, an Orderite should sum it up.
 
Thanks for that.

Yeah, when I read the rules I saw the Vats mentioned, I just hadn't looked through the forum, so I didn't realise it actually referred to a section, I thought it was just a metaphor for deletion. Got it now.

I'll definitely drop by on the rest, especially since my disappointment with FO4 will no doubt lead me to play the older games, and I'd be keen to try F2 Restoration.
 
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