#It also includes all 74 of the Creations that have been released.

[idohistorysometimes]

So what is going on in Iran right now?

I am pretty sure most of you who are either on TikTok or keep up with international news have heard about the massive protests happening in Iran right now. Its a pretty big deal. But what exactly are these protests for and why are they so important?

Hopefully, for those who dont know whats going on I can explain it all here.

Who is Mahsa Amini and what happened to her

Mahsa Amini was a 22-year-old woman traveling from Kurdistan to Tehran (the capital of Iran) to visit family and was stopped once she entered the city by something called “the morality police” (yes this is a real thing). They claimed Mahsa Amini was wearing her Hijab incorrectly and that she would be arrested to undergo “reeducation” at the police station (which would result in her being released after an hour or so). Mahsa’s brother was with her when she was arrested and waited at the station for her to be released.

It is unclear what exactly happened between when Mahsa was arrested and the events of her death (mostly because we do not have any video of these events), but the women detained along with Mahsa reported for similar offenses reported Mahsa was violently beaten by said “morality officers”. This was supposedly for resisting their insults directed toward her. This story is corroborated by her brother’s report of Mahsa having bruises all over her body and the hospital where Mahsa was staying reporting she was brain dead upon arrival along with reporting signs of skull fracture and bleeding in her brain both on social media and in leaked medical reports.

Mahsa died of her injuries 2 days after she was admitted to the hospital on September 16th of 2022. 

The official cause of death as reported by both the morality police and Iranian government has been extremely suspicious since the ‘official’ story claims she died as a result of a random heart attack/seizure combo. However, as stated before, there is plenty of evidence that Mahsa was violently attacked which includes (but is not limited to): the skull fractures found, the bruising around her body and face, the bleeding found in her brain and ears, and the fact several other witnesses have either said they witnessed the assault or have seen the previous things. Mahsa’s father also reported she was in perfect health and did not have a history of heart or seizure issues.

Why are people protesting?

For the people of Iran, instances of violence like this are not an unheard-of occurrence. Since the revolution of 1979 and the creation of this “morality police force” women were forced to wear the Hijab regardless of personal choice and had to adhere to a strict modest dress code lest they face similar treatment to Mahsa. To quote an actual penal code enacted in Iran post-revolution:

"women who appear in public without religious hijab will be sentenced to whipping up to 74 lashes"

Violence against women for this reason was now, in a way, much more normalized. Some of these dresscodes did apply to men, sure, but they were primiarly created expressly to control women with the use of fear and force by way of the Hijab. To also directly quote Iran’s Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei (who has been in power since 1989):  

"improperly veiled women should be made to feel unsafe"

Is this an anti-Islam protest?

The protests surrounding the death of Mahsa Amini have definitely gained international attention by what many people are doing in them. Many women are burning their hijabs in the streets, cutting off/shaving their hair, and otherwise just doing a lot of things that, traditionally, would be considered taboo under this system that's currently in place. However, this does not seem to be a direct rejection of Islam and rather a direct rejection of control over women by the use of the Hijab as an avenue for that control.

As stated before, this is not a new issue. There have been anti-hijab protests going on since the revolution in Iran back in the 70s. There were even protests pre-revolution FOR veiling since the leader at the time wanted to strictly stick to western norms. Iran shifted from one major extreme to the other. And in both these extremes choice on the part of the woman in question is completely taken out of the equation. It has been men making these choices for women in a broad universal way without giving women the ability to decide what they want for themselves. There is more than 1 way to veil in Islam. There are also many women who do not veil at all but are still active participants in their faith. There is not one specific way to do this correctly within Islam because modesty as a whole is a subjective topic. So the fact this police force exists in the first place is less about keeping morals ‘secure’ and more about exerting control through these rules via more extreme interpretations. 

It would however be unfair to say that these protests and the cultural revolution happening because of these protests do not diametrically oppose some parts of Islam and the culture surrounding it. These beliefs are incompatible by virtue of them being polar opposites of each other. These protests, like it or not, have western influence on them and this influence threatens certain parts of Islam because over time certain aspects of culture have become rooted in these controlling methods. Its pretty unclear how this will all play out. However, it is safe to say this will be shaking up things both within Iran and in the world of Islam as a whole. 

Why are Non-Iranian women also cutting their hair?

Ever since the protests have gained international attention many women outside of Iran (both ethnically Iranian and not) have also been cutting their hair to various degrees to stand in solidarity with protestors. 

This is significant symbolically for a few reasons. In many cultures, long hair is directly tied to one's femininity, attractiveness, and even in some cases where one comes from. Like it or not hair is culturally and socially important and the loss off it can be a very big deal for those living under these cultural expectations. In Iran doing something like this subjects you to harassment from the morality police. It breaks the morality code and challenges the idea of what a woman should be and look like. Outside of this context, the removal of hair can be a sign of mourning, fear, anger, and a rejection of femininity (or in this case, the control brought on by strict gendered dress codes). 

There has been a lot of controversy around this act since many people currently participating in these protests feel this act is performative activism on the part of western allies. Cutting one's hair is not really on the same level as donating money to a cause or protesting yourself. But others believe this is an important act of international solidarity. If you reading this decide to do this: do it at your own discretion and be sure your act of solidarity does not outshine the actual protests going on.

Why are people asking to blur/delete protest footage posted online?

It should go without saying that the people protesting right now are putting themselves in very real danger. What happened to Mahsa Amini is now happening to protesters who are speaking out about Iran’s harsh morality laws. Many people have died already as a result of participating in these protests and many more have gone missing. When you are dealing with an oppressive system like this they are not going to take too kindly to opposition. And if they are not afraid to beat women simply for wearing their Hijab ‘incorrectly’, they are not afraid to do much worse to political rivals. 

Out of respect for the protesters and their safety: please blur out any faces, names, and remove all metadata from any protest photos/footage you decide to share online. Because if I can find one of the protestors on Instagram simply by looking at their face and general location so can the morality police. For those around during the Black Lives Matter protests, the Russian anti-war protests, or any other media-sensitive protest use those same rules when posting footage/reporting on them

#iran #mahsa amini #world events #whats going on #psa

[encyclopediacr]

Last month year at the wiki — 2022

Happy New Year! Today, as we all begin 2023, our editing community at Encyclopedia Exandria take the time to look back at the year we just left. Here is a special edition of our still-new monthly retrospectives: last year at the wiki.

2022 has been an exciting year for us as a fan community. The Legend of Vox Machina premiered, Tal'Dorei Campaign Setting Reborn, Call of the Netherdeep, and The Nine Eyes of Lucien were published, 4-Sided Dive began, ExU Kymal and Calamity aired, Vox Machina Origins: Series III and Tales of Exandria: The Bright Queen concluded, Mighty Nein Origins: Caleb, Yasha, and Fjord released.

It's been a busy time, especially for us at the Encyclopedia Exandria. The Critical Role wiki at Miraheze was opened to the public on June 9 as a fork from the original Fandom wiki.

In acknowledgement of the hard and exciting work our editors have accomplished over the past year, here is a selection of projects that our community is especially proud to have created or significantly improved (or is excited to have seen others work on) in 2022.

But first, to say: we are grateful for and excited about all work that was contributed to Encyclopedia Exandria, ranging from hefty content updates to spelling and typing error corrections. All of this together makes the wiki the resource that it is, and all contributions made over the past year by our editors—whether they be veteran, new, anonymous, or just passing by—is immensely valued.

Because many of our editors are veterans from Fandom and because this project is a fork, thus is based off the Fandom wiki as it existed in late May and inherited any contributions previously made there, the following projects include those editors of Encyclopedia Exandria completed while at the Fandom wiki. We are proud of that work as well, and they are included in keeping with the spirit of highlighting accomplishments and contributions to our wiki over the past year that our editors are proud of, regardless of where they first made these edits.

A family of articles covering the Tide of Retribution adventure from Explorer's Guide to Wildemount was added to the wiki. "Three Earrings" is a particular highlight.

With new access to the first two Chronicles of Exandria artbooks as a resource, we could make some significant updates. Most excitingly, "Ulugrah" was created, and "Melanie de Rolo" and "Grand Purveyor of the Grey Hunt" were greatly expanded.

Speaking of improvements in Campaign 1 coverage, "Vord" saw much-needed and long-overdue improvements, and the creation of "githyanki skull" covered an old gap of a very interesting item from the campaign. Other notable overhauls include "The Calamity" and "Star Razor".

Some more conceptual articles have also been reorganized and created. Perhaps not as exciting as other content updates, but it has been a boon for readability and information seeking. "Resurrection, "media chronology", and "magic" come to mind.

We revisited the historical decision not to properly cover the verboten Wendy's one-shot. "Feast of Legends" (formerly "Special 48") now treats the one-shot as any other.

We as a community are very proud of our coverage of Exandria Unlimited: Calamity. The topic is vast, and we love many aspects of it, but we are especially proud of "Astral Leywright", "Eyes of Avalir", "Tempus" and, of course, "Bolo Maximus".

All of our Talks Machina articles were renamed and given new episode codes to make them easier to identify and reference. For example, the article for the Talks Machina for 2x26: Found & Lost used to be simply "Talks Machina 74" with a code of "TMx74". It is now titled "Talks Machina 74: Found & Lost" and has a code of "TM2x26". That's not all for Talks Machina! These articles have long stood empty, but headway this year as seen all of them filled with at least the topics covered, and some Talks articles even now contain the cast's answers and discussion.

The family of articles for the Arms of the Betrayers were created early in the year, filling in a large gap in coverage for lore introduced in Explorer's Guide to Wildemount. The work was rewarded when "Mace of the Black Crown" became an important article for Calamity viewers.

Increased coverage of the smaller but unique elements of Exandria has been a joy to see. "Tree of the sun", "Trost", and "candlerock" are but a handful of the new articles on plants, animals, foods, and other small bits of the world.

We've also been very excited about work that is very hard to link to here, such as steadily removing rampant plagiarism, the development of clearer wiki policies, improvements to category structure, updates and re-structuring of infoboxes, separation of the "specials" episode category into one-shots and miscellaneous filmed content, and the creation of a script that near-instantly updates articles when the VOD is released on YouTube. These projects work mostly in the background and are harder to notice, but we feel they've improved the wiki just like any content update.

It's been a very busy 2022, and this is just a small selection of the amazing work our editing community has accomplished. We are proud of all the work that we've seen in the six months since Encyclopedia Exandria was created, and the work in the six months before that that we inherited.

We look forward to 2023 and to the exciting work that year will bring.

#Critical Role #Critical Role wiki #last month at the wiki

[goboymusic]

Saw a comment that said “power doesn’t necessarily corrupt people. It reveals who they’ve always been.” I think I might agree with this. Give someone newfound leverage over the people around them, be that in a workplace, family, friend group, etc., and they may use that leverage to emotionally manipulate others (maybe without even realizing it), or worse. We’ve all witnessed a form of this. Gotta admit, I can think of a few situations where it may have happened to me.

This song wraps up GoBoy 4.

GoBoy’s songwriting philosophy has been adjusted from album to album. For GoBoy 4, the goal was to create. Nothing more, nothing less. I wanted to open Logic Pro everyday and mess around with sounds until I had a song, which took about six days per song for this album. On average, each GoBoy 3 song took four days to complete, GoBoy 4 songs took six days, GoBoy 5 songs took fourteen days, and GoBoy 6 songs took thirty days.

Things would change for GoBoy 5. Instead of creating for the sake of creating, I wanted to make poppier songs that would appeal to a larger audience. Was that goal accomplished? Well, maybe, I guess. It resulted in the song “In Love (Song 82),” which everyone and their mother seems to like.

“Dancing Under The Sea” was made simultaneously with “About Me (Song 78).” Switched my attention back and forth every few hours until both songs were finished. Throughout GoBoy 3, 4 and 5, attention was usually focused on one song at a time, but once in a while I’d shake up the production process to keep things interesting and do multiple songs at once.

For GoBoy 6, fifteen songs were produced simultaneously (songs 102 - 116). Too much.

“Dancing Under The Sea” is about a gay relationship in a homophobic environment. That said, I’m straight, for the record.

The creation of songs 74 - 79 was a really healthy creative period (during the height of the pandemic, oddly enough). High level of optimism and low stress. I cherish those times when they arise, because they don’t last.

This album was GoBoy’s SUPER minimalistic phase. Some will be turned off by the simplicity of GoBoy 4 songs.

In April, 2021, almost all of GoBoy 3, 4 and 5‘s songs were restructured to be under 3 minutes (preferably under 2m 30s), including this song. I became okay with releasing songs around the 2 min mark after realizing The Beatles and The Beach Boys had some songs around that length. In an attempt to increase replay value in this streaming era, most of GoBoy’s songs are now purposely around 2m 20s (excerpts from post 37).

A bass boost was added to songs 37-99 in Nov, 2021, while I was stuck at home with covid. As a result, this song feels more powerful. The bass boost isn’t a simple plugin nonchalantly added to each song. It’s a process that took about 3.5 hours per song, or one whole month to complete all songs. Admittedly, I pushed the bass boost a little too far for some of them. The bass in some songs sounds like a freaking earthquake (unnecessarily pronounced low frequencies 20 - 50 Hz). Might dial that back someday. The bass boost was also applied to every song on GoBoy 6 and beyond (excerpt from post 37).

#GoBoy #Dancing #Sea #79

[maacwanowrie]

The causes of the VFX industry's expansion in India

You can develop your creativity, problem-solving, planning, and evaluation skills by majoring in design and technology at the MAAC Institute in Pune. Since many projects require group collaboration, you'll also develop your interpersonal and cooperative skills. Not to mention, it will really exercise your creative side!

1. Booming market: The number of young people interested in using 4G, 5G, and other portable technology has significantly increased. use of visual effects (VFX) in animation and cinema has increased. India is one of the first options when considering a nation that offers services to the animation sector.

 2. Opportunities that are pertinent: The OTT, television, and AGV divisions are propelling business growth, and in this digital era, they are also assisting in the bolstering of technology. Animation businesses and academies are booming in cities like Bangalore, Chennai, and Mumbai.

 3. Supporting legislation: The FDI cap was raised from 74% to 100%. To promote the development of low-cost digital communications infrastructure and services, the government released the National Digital Communications Policy 2018 (NDCP 2018).

 4. Investments: Investment in the animation and VFX industry has increased. In 2021, domestic revenue is anticipated to increase to 40% of total revenue, with around 60% coming from international sources.

 In order to enhance and visually affect the content of storytelling, the entertainment industry, production companies, and content providers are creating stories that rely on special effects and animation. Action and mythical films make up a large portion of the movies that were released under Covid, and these films heavily rely on animation and visual effects throughout the creation and post-production phases, which is another factor contributing to the industry's expansion in the nation. The production team may easily use a pre-made setting with some colour modifications thanks to new technologies, which lowers manufacturing expenses. Storylines that extensively rely on animation and special effects are now being developed by filmmakers, production firms, and content suppliers. Inception, Avengers, Baahubali, and of course Khaleesi's dragon from Game of Thrones were all made in India. The most recent action-techno thrill ride with puzzling visual effects includes Tenet (Oscar winner for VFX), KGF, RRR, and Brahmastra. There are a lot more well-known athletes in the competition; these are just a handful. These examples show that although though animation and special effects have always been a part of the process of creating content, they have now reached their highest point.

 Finally, with the introduction of modern technologies, the animation and VFX sector has grown to new heights. Nevertheless, a faster growth rate is anticipated in the following several years. The planned expansion has a strong base thanks to sophisticated methods and creative expression. The animation sector is now growing quickly. India is currently thought of as one of the best places to provide animation and content services.

[uesp]

The Anniversary Edition of Skyrim changes the Imperial Dragon to gold.

#UESP #Skyrim #Anniversary #It also includes all 74 of the Creations that have been released. #If you were at all interested in any of the Creations this is definitely the cheapest way to get them ($19.99 USD vs ~$160 USD)

[dailyaudiobible]

04/02/2020 DAB Transcript

Deuteronomy 21:1-22:30, Luke 9:51-10:12, Psalms 74:1-23, Proverbs 12:11

Today is the 2nd day of April welcome to the Daily Audio Bible I’m Brian it's great to be here with you, to be back here with you. It was a fun to go over and spend some time in Daily Audio Bible Chronological and have China kinda come over here and spend some time in Daily Audio Bible yesterday as we mark th April 1st…we just do these…all kinds of little jokes for April Fools' Day, but kinda just was switched over, switched it up. It's nice to have time to visit. And, so, it’s good to be back with you today, back into the rhythm that we have here at Daily Audio Bible. It’s fun to be over there in the book of Judges as they're moving through chronologically. Here we are moving through the book of Deuteronomy, the last things this Moses has to say. And we’re trying to give it the gravity, even though we’re kind of reviewing some of the laws and some of the different statutes and some of the history, some of the things that we traveled through. Deuteronomy is giving us the opportunity to review that, which is actually really helpful because it's really important. All the culture and how it formed is the backdrop for Jesus understanding when He comes into the world and the things He's talking about. So, us understanding this back story is irreplaceable. So, today we’ll pick up where we left off yesterday. We’re reading from the New International Version this week. Today, Deuteronomy chapters 21 and 22.

Commentary:

Okay. On a number of occasions, throughout this entire year so far we've been noticing Jesus talk about eyes to see and ears to hear and trying to press into that, especially in this year of vision and vision to see the kingdom at work because that's what Jesus was describing in His ministry, a kingdom that was at work in and among us now sown in as a crop among weeds like all growing up together, here and now. So, when He says, for I…for those who have eyes to see, He’s saying, “if you would wake up and see this.” If you have ears to hear this, “then essentially you would realize that the way this world was designed wasn't supposed to be dog eat dog. It wasn't supposed to be this…where everything you accumulate isn’t something you have to protect, where you’re further pulled into isolation away, where you live in a world of “I” and “me” and “mine.” Jesus was saying, “like there’s a completely different way of being in this world, a way that you were created to be in this world, one where you are in union with God, and you realize what else do you need, what else do you lack after that.” And, so, we can all get on board with that say, “yes, yes and amen. Like, that's what I want to be a part of. That's what I am a part of.” But normally how we translate that is that we will be children of the light and…and we will do good in this world and everything will go well. And Jesus continually, including in our reading today, said that's not exactly how it's gonna work. You’re bringing light into the darkness and the darkness doesn't comprehend it and the darkness doesn't want light because that light will expose what is hidden in the darkness. And when happens, when this exposure happens, well then that which is hidden, that wants to remain hidden is going to fight against the light which is gonna bring marginalization and even persecution. And Jesus is clear in instructing us on this. And, so it…like we should get our minds around it. He’s saying, “I'm sending you like lambs among wolves.” And He’s also saying like, “anybody who starts this journey and then finds out it's gonna be hard and turns back isn't worthy of the kingdom.” It's a much more sobering reality than we often pay attention to but all we have to do is watch Jesus in the Gospels to see it playing out vividly, wight? So, Jesus is revealing the kingdom to a human family that was so disoriented from its created place, how it was made to be, that it's…it doesn't even recognize itself. And, I mean like the most poignant way to see this is the cross. God's creation, not realizing that God was among them, and doing everything possible to do away with God, that's how backwards things had gotten, that's how backward things are. The harvest is still ripe. The laborers are still few. And, as we will learn as we continue our journey through the Scriptures, this bringing light into the darkness boils down to one word, “endure, endurance”. When we keep the light burning from within and we endure the onslaughts of the darkness to…to stifle it, to put it out, when we remain, then we are a witness of God's kingdom in this world not only in what we say but in who we are. We are bearing witness to the fact that God is at work in this world through His people. That’s us. So, we’re going to face opposition on this path. But so often when we face ridicule or some type of something that feels like persecution, we might respond by putting out our own light and perpetuating the darkness by striking back with the same dark tactics that are being used against us. And all you’ve gotta do is just troll around the Internet a little bit to find that in action continually. Jesus instructions to these 72 people that he sent out today was, “be the light, endure, announce the kingdom. If it's not received than simply say the kingdom was here, it was here for you and then shake the dust and move on.” And this sounds remarkably like the voice of wisdom that we’re getting to know as we move through the Proverbs this year. At every crossroads, there is the right choice. At every turning point there is wisdom for the next step if we have eyes to see, if we are awake, if we are paying attention.

Prayer:

Father, we invite you into that because it really does touch some deep things. Like, if we will sit and think about how our responses, like how we respond to people in any given situation throughout this day, if we would just observe ourselves, we would catch ourselves, we would see the things that pull us into perpetuating the darkness and we invite your Holy Spirit into those triggers, into those things. Help us to remain true and bring the light into dark situations. Help us to be a witness for your kingdom in this world today. And we ask this in the name of Jesus. Amen.

Announcements:

dailyaudiobible.com is the website and that is home, especially for a virtual community. And it's good that we have this home right now. It's good that the Global Campfire continues to burn. I am, at least personally speaking, so, so, so grateful for you, so grateful like that this image in my mind of this campfire burning and the word of God being open and we just kind of come in and I can see us in the firelight. I just…to have that mental image, to know that we are still here together in crazy times, that is, that means the world to me. So, I’m so grateful for our community and that our community is virtual and that all over the world no matter what we’re facing, we have each other. Thank God.

So, over the last week I guess it's been now, we’ve been releasing each day like soul care around the Global Campfire for the times that we’re in. And, so, we’ve been releasing a chapter a day of the book Sneezing Jesus, the…the audio edition of Sneezing Jesus. And yesterday…so China and I were like switching spots, but we still released a chapter yesterday. It was called “Open It Up” and it…this explored the resurrection of Lazarus and applied it into our own lives and our own hearts. And now we…we just have today and two more days before we will conclude Sneezing Jesus. And now we’re kind of turning our attention into Jesus last days. And today's chapter is centered around the fact that Jesus…Jesus at His Last Supper…like one of the last acts of freedom before He was arrested was to get down on His knees and wash the feet of His disciples and to give them a vivid image of what life is supposed to look like the posture that we’re supposed to have toward one another. And, wow, I am finding such poignant, in my own words, like I’m speaking back to my own self as I kind of go back through this book again. And I am just finding like these things to be considered and to be put into practice no matter what time it is. But in times like these wow it…it is so poignant for us to not lose sight of what the gospel means and how it is supposed to transform our hearts and our worldview and our actions toward one another. And, so, that today’s chapter is called Rinse. So, be sure to check that out.

If you want to partner with the Daily Audio Bible, then thank you. It takes all of us to keep logs on the Global Campfire so that it burns bright. And, so, thank you so deeply, so humbly for your partnership. There’s a link on the homepage at dailyaudiobible.com. If you’re using the Daily Audio Bible app, you can press the Give button in the upper right-hand corner, or if you prefer the mail, the mailing address is PO Box 1996 Spring Hill Tennessee 37174.

And, as always, if you've a prayer request or encouragement, you can hit the Hotline button in the app, the little red button at the top or you can dial 877-942-4253 or if you're in the UK or Europe you can dial 44-20-3608-8078 or if you are in Australia or that part of the world can dial 61-3-8820-5459.

And that's it for today. I'm Brian I love you and I'll be waiting for you here tomorrow.

[ciathyzareposts]

Game 38: Super Dungeon (1979)

Believe it or not, this is the title screen for Super Dungeon, not the exciting new game PROGRAMMA SOFTWARE

Today’s game is Super Dungeon, a CRPG released only for the Apple II. Like most of the CRPGs released commercially around this time, it has no particular goal beyond venturing into a dungeon and escaping with as much loot as possible. (Of those I’ve played so far, I think only Wilderness Campaign and Beneath Apple Manor have a non-monetary quest.)  What it also has in common with the other games of this time is that it’s implementing Dungeons & Dragons-style gameplay in its own way; we’re still in the era before there have been any widely influential CRPGs, so everyone has their own ideas about how it should be done.

Super Dungeon was created by Rodney Nelsen, who we’ll see on the blog again at some point, as he has at least one more more RPG to his name (Dragon Fire, released in 1981). He also worked on some Carmen Sandiego games in the 90s, so he had a decently lengthy career in the games industry. It was published by Programma International, who must be among the earliest video game companies.  They went out of business in 1983 but in that time they published loads of games, almost exclusively for the Apple II. None of these appear to be of particular significance, although Dragon Maze was influential on a number of early CRPGs, including Super Dungeon.

I was immediately impressed after booting up the game by the extensive in-game instructions. The space limitations of the time usually prevent this sort of thing, but Super Dungeon does a very good job of explaining itself up front. It might be a tad too lengthy for someone who just wants to start the game, but you can skip it with no trouble.

It starts with the story, if you can call it that, which I’ll reproduce here: “There have been numerous rumors of huge deposits of gold, hidden in a maze of caves, deep beneath the Earth. It is said that this gold is guarded by thousands of demons, monsters and other sorts of evil beings. Well, these rumors are true, and you are about to descend into the depths of these caves that we call the D U N G E O N S ! ! !” I don’t know if it’s worth those three exclamation points, but it is the classic D&D set-up.

Character creation is fairly simple. You type a name, and then the game gives you two stats: Constitution and Strength. Constitution, which appears to range from around 10 to 30, is this game’s equivalent of hit points.  Strength ranges from about 10 to 25, and is part of what determines whether you score a hit in combat. Creating a character right now, I got a Constitution of 28 and a Strength of 12.

There are then five character classes to choose from: Warrior, Wizard, Elf, Dwarf, and Hobbit. Each of these, of course, has their own strengths and weaknesses, but what differentiates this game from others is that each class has certain doors it can pass through.  Seriously, doors are way important in Super Dungeon.  Your stats don’t limit your choice of character class, but they may have an effect on how many experience points you earn. For example, a Warrior or a Dwarf will earn more experience if their Strength is over 15, and a Wizard earns more with a Constitution over 30. Hobbits are penalised if their Constitution is over 30, and Elves likewise if their Strength is greater than 15. With my scores of 12 and 28, I don’t want to choose a Warrior, a Dwarf or a Wizard, so I go with an Elf.

After that you get more stats: Life Points and Armor Class. Armor Class ranges from 0 to 10, and wearing armour improves it. Unlike old-school D&D, a higher number is better.  Even wearing no armour my Elf begins with 3.  Life Points are like stamina, and may be the most important stat in the game. Every move you make drains a Life Point, and going through certain doors will drain from 5 to 10.  If your Life Points hit 0 you drop from exhaustion, and the last monster you encountered gets the honour of killing you.  Each class begins with its own range of hit points; Hobbits are the lowest with 50-60, while Warriors get 90-100. The main reason I chose the Elf over the Hobbit as my class above is that Elves get more Life Points (74, in this case).

Nathan the Elf, I feel like I’m insulting myself

The last part of character creation is buying equipment. You begin with a number of copper pieces determined by your class, and from that you can buy weapons, armour, a horse, and food. Weapons add to your Strength in combat, while armour adds to your Armor Class as I mentioned above. Food grants you more Life Points. A horse increases your Speed, which begins at 1 but can be raised to 2 with a draft horse or 3 with a light horse. It’s pretty weird to imagine an adventurer galloping around the dungeon on horseback, but having a good speed is essential for getting the first strike in combat.

You have to buy two weapons for some reason. Most classes can use whatever weapon they want, but Wizards are restricted to non-magical daggers. They get a +3 Strength bonus to offset this due to their magic, and to be honest I never noticed them performing particularly worse than the other classes. There are no restrictions on the other items. With 106 copper, I bought my Elf a sword, a dagger, chainmail armour, a light horse, some iron rations and a quart of wine. This increased my Armor Class to 5, and my Life to 109. I don’t know if you get the Strength bonus from both weapons, but the sword is worth 5 and the dagger is worth 2. There’s no point saving any copper at this point, because you can’t do any more shopping once the game begins.

Super Dungeon looks visually quite similar to Robert Clardy’s Dungeon Campaign, which makes sense because both games were influenced by Dragon Maze.  Each level of the dungeon is created at random. Your character begins near an exit on the right of the screen, and the entrance to the next dungeon level will be found on the left. (It never occurred to me while playing, but progress being right-to-left is slightly odd from a Western perspective.)  Your character is represented by a brown rectangle, and you move around using the U, D, L and R keys to represent Up, Down, Left and Right. (I’m pretty sure this is done because the Apple keyboard didn’t have all four Arrow keys.)

Scattered throughout the maze are various kinds of doors: red, blue, and white. The red doors are normal, the blue ones are secret doors, and the white ones are bolted.  You can get through the red doors for free, but depending on your class the blue and white doors will drain your Life Points: Wizards and Elves can get through the blue (secret) doors for free, while Dwarves and Hobbits suffer no penalty for going through a white (bolted) door.  Warriors are drained by both blue and white doors, but they get a bonus 25 Life Points at the start of every dungeon level. (In my opinion, it’s not enough.)  You don’t always succeed at opening doors, and more than once I lost loads of Life Points trying to batter down a white door that was blocking my way forward.

Randomly creating the next level of the dungeon.

Beyond every door is a room where you will find some treasure and/or a monster, so you want to explore as many of those doors as possible.  On the other hand, you don’t want to lose too much Constitution or Life before you reach the exit, or you’ll be starting the next level at a major disadvantage, unless you’ve earned a lot of experience points along the way. Balancing your Life and Constitution against the experience you earn is probably the most important factor in surviving the game.

The rooms beyond the doors aren’t shown on the map, but when you enter one you get a crude graphical depiction of what treasure lies within. This can include coins (gold pieces, naturally) as well as various kinds of magic items. If there’s no monster in the room you can claim the treasure, but if there is a monster you’ll have to fight it first. You can only loot the treasure from a room once, though; if you try to go through that door again the game will inform you that it’s illegal, and erase any doors you’ve already been through from the map.

The game has treasures as follows:

Gold pieces, either loose or in a bag

Magical swords and daggers, which increase your chance to hit (and give you the ability to fight certain monsters)

Magical armour, which increases your Armor Class. You can keep finding magic armour, and it keeps raising your AC, which is welcome even though it makes no sense.

Magic rings, which increase your stats

Magic potions, which give you a Life or Constitution bonus

Maps, which give you the ability to get through any door of your choice for free. The class description for the Wizard mentions that they can always read maps, but I never found a map that I was unable to read with the other classes.

Keys, which allows you free access through the white doors.

Chests, which might be trapped. I think they only contain gold, but don’t quote me on that.

Coffins, which might contain gold, magic gas that increase or decrease your stats, or skeletons that you have to fight.

This room contains a pile of gold and a magic ring fit only for thin, rectangular fingers.

Combat is extremely simple.  There are lots of different types of monsters, all drawn from D&D, but they don’t have any special abilities.  Monsters have scores in Speed, Strength and Armor Class. These function in much the same way as they do for the player, although the monster’s Strength also doubles as its hit points.  The combatant with the highest Speed goes first, and then you simply trade blows until one or the other dies. This can take a while at first, because your maximum damage is equal to the dungeon level you’re on. When you’re fighting a monster with a Strength of 20 and doing 1 point of damage with each hit, it can get a little tedious. Thankfully you can blast through it quickly by holding down Enter, but there’s always the risk of a surprise death when you do that.

Pretty much your only option other than attacking is to run away, which you get the opportunity to do at the end of every round (or at the beginning of combat if your Speed is higher). When you flee the monster gets a chance to hit you in the back. You shouldn’t need to run unless your Constitution is very low, the monster has loads of Strength, or it has a Speed of more than 1. High Speed monsters are the ones you really want to watch out for, because they get multiple attacks per round. A monster with a Speed of 3 gets three attacks to your one, so they’re best avoided; some monsters have Speed as high as 5.  You might beat them, but sometimes it’s better to leave the room than lose too much Constitution. If possible, your best bet might be to circle around and enter the door from the other side, because doing that will give you a different room altogether.

This room has a bag, two coffins, and a Dragon that I would probably run away from.

Oh, there’s one more reason you might want to run away: some monsters can only be damaged by magic weapons. This isn’t a problem for the Wizard, who gets to kill them with spells, but every other class is outta luck. Even the Elf (who is described as being both a Warrior and a Wizard) needs a magical weapon in these circumstances. The game gives you the option to fight, but it’s a suicidal one.

Defeating monsters gives you half of their Strength score in experience. When you reach the entrance to the next level you also get a bonus equal to the level you just defeated, modified by whatever bonus or penalty you get for your stats and character class. You can then spend this experience to raise your stats, with 1 point buying 1 Constitution or 3 Life points.  Getting the balance right here can be difficult, but for the most part I found it better to prioritise Life over Constitution.  Unfortunately, all this balance went out the window once I figured out that the process could be cheated.  You can return to the level you just beat, and then pop back to the next level and get more bonus points. Keep going back and forth between levels and you can get your stats as high as you like. It’s time-consuming, but that’s what upping the cycles on emulators is for. (I did cheat a little bit using this method, but the character I finally beat the game with was 100% cheat-free.)

Spending experience between dungeon levels. This is pretty deep into the game.

There are dangers outside of the rooms as well, that pop up at random. You can’t see them on the map, you just have to deal with the consequences of the encounter as it happens.

Wandering monsters: These don’t appear on the first dungeon level, but after that there’s a chance that a monster will attack you while you’re exploring the tunnels. You can’t flee from them either, so it’s just pure luck as to whether you’re strong enough to win. It would be terribly unfair if a monster that can only be affected by magic weapons popped up in this way, but I never encountered one.

Tremors: Occasionally a tremor hits, which causes some tunnels to be blocked and others to open up. Fairness isn’t a consideration here: sometimes the path to the next level is completely blocked, sometimes the way back is blocked, and sometimes (rarely) both ways are blocked. If this happens, you’re probably dead unless you can find a teleporter.

Teleportation: Some squares will teleport you to a random location on the same level. If you’re low on Life Points, this can be a death sentence; more than once I lost a character by being teleported away just as I was about to reach the exit and restore my Life with experience points.

The Witch: There’s a witch who pops up at random and zaps away some of your Constitution. Usually it’s a small percentage, like 1/10, and not too troubling.

The Thief: This thief occasionally appears to steal your gold. This isn’t a big deal, unless you’re playing for points: gold has no effect on the game aside from measuring your success at the end.

Pits: Sometimes you will stumble in the dark into a pit, and climbing out will drain a certain percentage of your Life. I’ve had it drain as much as half, and when your on the deeper levels that can mean hundreds or thousands of points. Along with being teleported this is the deadliest random occurrence.

Magic Wand: The only good thing that happens at random is that you can find a magic wand you can use to obliterate any one enemy. Handy to have in emergencies, or when you find a Speed 5 monster with a Strength score in the triple digits.

Getting zapped by a Witch.

As I mentioned above, there’s no goal to this game beyond amassing as many gold pieces as possible. You win by escaping the dungeon with your treasure, which can be done in two ways. The first is by retracing your steps all the way back to Level 1 and leaving via the exit.  The other is by finding a secret passage, which looks like a black square on the map. (Well, the instructions call it a secret passage and the game calls it a transportation chamber.)  Entering a secret passage takes you all the way back to the surface, but they appear at random so you can’t always rely on having one around.

In general I found that the Wizard was the most effective class: they get a decent amount of Life Points, they don’t need magic weapons, and they can get through blue doors for free. At the beginning the ability to get through the blue doors is about as useful as the ability to get through the white ones, but eventually you’re going to find a key that opens all of the white ones anyway. The Warrior is the weakest class: they can only go through regular doors, and their 25 point Life bonus isn’t enough to offset that limitation. If you pick the Warrior, you’re playing on hard mode.

I lost a dozen or so characters before I figured out the balance of the game (and also how to cheat). The first character I “won” with got down to Level 10 before I found a secret passage and left the dungeon with around 13,000 gold pieces.  I was ready to declare the game beaten at that point, but I thought that just for fun I’d make a mad dash and see how deep I could get.  I had an expectation that the game might be infinite, but I hadn’t taken into consideration the fact that it remembers the levels you’ve previously explored; there’s a limit to the number of levels a PC of this era could remember. When I got to Level 20 I noticed that there was a secret passage right next to the exit.  I cleared out the level, and when I stepped on that secret passage I got the following victory message:

This was followed by a summary of my character’s status, including how much gold I had amassed:

Having reached the bottom of the dungeon, there’s really nothing left to do but try to do it again with more gold.  I’m not particularly into achieving high scores, so for me Super Dungeon is done and it’s time to give it a Final Rating.

FINAL RATING:

Story & Setting: I mean, let’s be real, this game doesn’t have a story, and it does nothing to flesh that non-story out with some setting flavour. The dungeon doesn’t even have a name!  Random doors and walls do not an intriguing setting make.  Rating: 1 out of 7.

Characters & Monsters: The variety in the monsters is pretty high: there might be as many as a few dozen.  They’re all from D&D or mythology, which is a hackneyed thing to do but works when you don’t have graphics. It’s not original, but at least I have some idea what a Rust Monster looks like.  There are some deep cuts as well: I don’t think I’ve ever encountered a Su-Monster before (in video games or tabletop, to be honest). There’s not much done with that variety, though. None of them have special abilities, beyond the few that are only damaged by magical weapons. In many ways, the variety is in name only, because there are no tactical options in combat.  Rating: 2 out of 7.

Aesthetics: The graphics are functional, but not exactly easy on the eyes. The only sound comes from the internal speaker, with different variations of beeps and bloops that are occasionally amusing but otherwise don’t do much for me. As for atmosphere, there ain’t none.  Rating: 1 out of 7.

Mechanics: Exploration is rudimentary, while combat is a rote affair at best.  The strongest aspect of this game is the balance between Constitution, Life and experience, which can be tricky to master when you’re starting out.  It’s an adequate game that’s a little too repetitive.  Rating: 3 out of 7.

Challenge: This game was a challenge at the beginning, before I learned how to best conserve my Life and Constitution (and before I learned that you can earn free experience by going back and forth between levels like a cheating cheater). This took me a couple of hours.  After that, it became far too easy.  I had thousands of Life points, my Constitution became too high for any damage done by monsters to trouble me, and eventually I found enough suits of magic armour that monsters could barely hit me at all.  The only challenge that remained was from random factors such as pits, teleportation, and the dreaded game-ending tremor, but these aren’t the good kind of challenge. Rating: 2 out of 7.

Innovation & Influence: Like most of the CRPGs of this vintage, this game is trying to recreate D&D. It’s not really doing anything that previous games haven’t done, but it’s doing the same things in different ways. I’d say it’s moderately innovative, mostly because it came out early enough in video game history that it’s not drawing from anything that came before. As for influence, there aren’t any significant CRPGs that take inspiration from it (only its sequel/remake Dragon Fire), and it doesn’t appear to have made much of a historical mark.  Rating: 3 out of 7.

Fun: This kept my interest for a couple of hours, and to be honest most of the fun I got from it was after I became super-powerful: there’s something to be said for being able to stomp around the dungeon killing everything in your path.  Even so, that fun was mild at best, and it didn’t hold my interest beyond those initial hours.  Rating: 2 out of 7.

Bonus Points: I probably won’t ever play Super Dungeon again, so it doesn’t get any bonus points.

The above scores total 14, which doubled gives a Final Rating of 28.  That puts it 30th overall, and 14th out of 15 CRPGs.  It’s only above Devil’s Dungeon, which is perhaps unfair; it’s better than a number of games above it, but that’s a consequence of me rating a bunch of stuff way higher than it deserved in the blog’s early days.  In the end, the exact ratings and positions are a little meaningless, as long as it’s in the right ballpark.

NEXT: The Priority List kicks in, as I get to the beginning of what is probably my all time favourite CRPG series: Akalabeth!

source http://reposts.ciathyza.com/game-38-super-dungeon-1979/

#retro games #dos games #retro #crpg #adventure #amiga #oldcomputers #8bit #16bit #blog #repost

[bbclesmis]

The Herald: Disappointed by TV version of Les Mis? Here comes the real thing

 On the streets of Paris, revolution is in the air. The people want to take back control from an out of touch government whose leaders are shoring up their own wealth. Barricades look set to be leapt. Such is the way of history repeating itself in France, from the 19th century uprising through to 1968 and even the current, and slightly more ideologically ambiguous wave of street protests by the so-called Gilets Jaunes – the yellow vests. It was seeing photographs of the latter in a French newspaper that struck a chord with Claude-Michel Schonberg.

 “Those pictures looked exactly like the set of Les Miserables,” says the composer of one of the most iconic pieces of musical theatre in the late twentieth and early twenty-first centuries.

 “First of all it made me realise that Les Miserables is still relevant. Secondly, it also made me realise that in 200 years we have learnt nothing.”

 Maybe this is why the current year-long UK tour of Les Miserables, originally adapted by Schonberg and writer Alan Boublil from Victor Hugo’s 1862 novel, has pretty much sold out already.

 Arriving in Edinburgh this month for the first time in 20 years for a month-long run, the English-language version of Boublil and Schonberg’s show has been a fixture of the London theatre circuit since Trevor Nunn directed a co-production between the Royal Shakespeare Company and Cameron Mackintosh at the Barbican in 1985.

 This makes it the second longest-running musical in the world.

 Despite the success of putting Hugo’s story charting ex-convict Jean Valjean’s travails through poverty-stricken France onstage, Schonberg for one isn’t quite sure of the reasons why it happened.

 “It’s a phenomenon I don’t really understand,” the now 74-year old composer admits of a creation which introduced the world to songs now regarded as modern classics such as I Dreamed A Dream, “but the show is more popular than ever. I must say, I’m totally surprised.”

 By the time Les Miserables opens at the Festival Theatre in Edinburgh, the new six-part TV adaptation of Hugo’s book scripted by Andrew Davies will be mid-way through its own run. With Dominic West playing Valjean as part of a cast that includes Olivia Coleman and David Oyelowo, rather than claiming kin with Boublil and Schonberg’s take on things, advance publicity appears to pointing up the fact that it is categorically not the musical, and shouldn’t be confused as such. Viewers and critics have already criticised this sans songs version as being flat.

 With Les Mis the musical itself filmed in 2012 with Hugh Jackman as Valjean, this too is something Schonberg doesn’t understand.

 “Whenever I read an article about the BBC version, they are saying it is the real version of the novel and not the trivial musical stage version,” he says.

 “I don’t know how you can promote something against it. People know the title because of the musical show, but each time there’s an adaptation, they all make the point that they are not going to have anyone singing. But who knows? This one might be very good. I will look at it carefully.”

 Schonberg probably doesn’t need to worry too much. As he points out, there has been more than 50 films based on Hugo’s novel, with over 20 TV adaptations as well as another 20 different versions onstage. This is how great stories work as they are reimagined for every age. Indeed, it was another musical adaptation of a nineteenth century novel that was the starting point for Les Miserables.

 “Alain saw Oliver! in London,” says Schonberg, who had previously collaborated with Boublil on La Revolution Francaise, France’s first rock opera, produced in 1973. “I said to Alain, next time we find a big subject, we have it as a sung-through musical, and when Alain saw Oliver!, that gave us an idea about how to do it.”

 Lionel Bart’s musical version of Charles Dickens’ novel, Oliver Twist, had already been adapted for film by Carol Reed in 1968 by then, after being first seen on the West End eight years earlier. Prior to putting Les Miserables onstage, as was the fashion then, Boublil and Schonberg released a recording of it as a concept album. This approach had already paid dividends for the English musical theatre team of Tim Rice and Andrew Lloyd Webber with Jesus Christ Superstar and Evita, and Schonberg had already scored hit records in France.

 Three years after the Les Miserables concept album had led to the show’s original French production, it was heard by British producer Cameron Mackintosh after it was passed on to him by director Peter Farago.

 “Two years after the show closed in Paris, Cameron was organising his records and put it on,” Schonberg recalls. “and after that we heard he was looking for those crazy French guys, Schonberg and Boublil”

 While the pair worked on new drafts of Les Miserables, Mackintosh was riding high on the success of Cats, directed by Trevor Nunn, who had also overseen David Edgar’s epic staging of Dickens’ Nicholas Nickleby, and knew how to put on a big show. Success was far from guaranteed, however, and the opening night of Les Mis was a critical disaster.

 “The critics were very bad,’ says Schonberg, actually using the v word eight times. “Cameron has a tradition of having a lunch the day after an opening night, and it was like a funeral. We thought it was finished, and during the lunch Cameron kept trying to call the box office to measure the scale of the disaster, but couldn’t get through. Eventually he received a message to say that the reason he couldn’t get through was that the show had sold 5,000 tickets, and in two weeks would be sold out.”

 Les Miserables went on to win an Olivier Award for the most popular show, while on Broadway it won three Tony awards.

 The current touring version is directed by Laurence Connor and James Powell for a production reinvigorated for the show’s 25th anniversary in 2009. The result is a very 21st century Les Mis, which utilises projections based on paintings by Hugo created by son et lumiere auteurs Fifty-Nine Productions. The internationally renowned team led by Leo Warner and Mark Grimmer, who have come a long way since their early work at the Traverse Theatre, the National Theatre of Scotland and with Stellar Quines Theatre Company.

 Having worked worldwide on the National Theatre’s production of War Horse and the 2012 Olympics, more recently 59 have been responsible for opening events of the Edinburgh International Festival, Deep Time, Bloom and the First World war-themed Five Telegrams. The latter projected images onto the walls of the Usher Hall accompanied by a thundering score by Anna Meredith.

 “There have been so many improvements to Les Miserable this year,’ says Schonberg. “That has a lot to do with technological developments which wouldn’t have been possible even five years ago.”

 This keeps the show fresh for several generations of theatre-goers, as was proven last week, when Schonberg met a woman who told him how she’d seen Les Miserables a staggering 300 times.

 “For Christmas she was taking her children and grand-children to see the show with hr again,’ he says.”

 What Les Miserables taps into, again, Schonberg isn’t sure about. All he can say is that “I think we did the right job, but it is the novel that is responsible for the success of the show, and for whatever reason, people seem to leave the theatre a bit different. People are scared for the future. They’re all looking for a bright tomorrow and waiting for the sun to shine, and people come out of the show perhaps believing they can be a better person.”

(x)

#les mis bbc #bbc les mis #Claude-Michel Schönberg #Interviews #articles #the herald

[henrygrayson23]

Chainlink Price Prediction

This is 4th in our series of 2021 price predictions for some of the major coins by market cap. We’ve already outlined our Bitcoin, Ethereum, and Stellar Lumens price projections for 2021. Today will will provide our Chainlink price prediction.

Further down in this article we will go over the details of what exactly Chainlink is and the potential that it offers, but you’re here for a price prediction, and we’re going to get right to it.

As always, we like to review price forecasts made by others in the crypto industry before we provide our own.

CaptainAltcoin shares the following LINK predictions:

Let’s throw a glance at the eminent publications and personalities, and their predictions regarding the ChainLink (LINK) price, which will give us another point of view to consider:

Trading Beasts – LINK – $20.78

Trading Beasts have given LINK prediction on monthly basis and they have forecasted that by the end of 2021, Chainlink might reach $20.78 to the maximum and $10.53 to the minimum.

Coin Fan – LINK – $23.18

Coin Fan is good at giving optimistic numbers and has predicted that by the end of 2021, LINK might reach $23.18, which is way more bullish and optimistic a prediction. They have even forecasted that by 2023, LINK might reach as much as $300, which is an unbelievable prediction.

Digital Coin Price – LINK – $15.74

Digital Coin price also has given a monthly prediction for Chainlink and they have projected that by the end of 2021, LINK might reach $15.743, which is almost double the current price.

Wallet Investor – LINK – $18.32

Wallet Investor is known for giving not so optimistic prediction for almost every digital currencies. Even for Chainlink, it is not quite different. They have predicted that by 2021 end, LINK might go down to $18.325.

Looking at the above forecasts for the price Chainlink might climb to this year, we’d venture to say they need to update their forecasting methods!

LINK has already surpassed 3 out of the four, and has almost surpassed the fourth. Needless to say, there’ still a LOT of time left in 2021 for LINK to keep Climbing.

Let’s review a few other LINK forecasts.

Coinpedia.org offers this prediction:

Chainlink has drawn a lot of attention and attracted new fans to their project. Their activities and appreciation among other industry players have increased trust in the company. By the end of 2021, the coin may reach about $28.

CryptoEinfach reported these Chainlink price predictions for 2021:

Crypto-rating.com determined the year-by-year price change of Chainlink with their own AI-enabled algorithm, they are predicting In 2021, Chainlink will be priced around $19.82.

Digitalcoinprice.com thinks Chainlink will peak in 2024 with around $34.3 their prediction is a bit more pessimistic with a price in 2021 of $20.49.

Once again, LINK has already exceeded the two price forecasts above.

This is the LINK prediction as declared by gov.capital:

Our site uses a custom algorithm based on Deep Learning that helps our users to decide if LINK could be a good portfolio addition for the future. These predictions take several variables into account such as volume changes, price changes, market cycles, similar coins.

Future price of the asset is predicted at $33.033427 (57.429% ) after a year according to our prediction system.

Custom deep learning algorithm? Sounds so sophisticated. However, If our LINK prediction is anywhere near close to what actually occurs, it won’t be very long before it becomes crystal clear that their deep learning algo needs to go back to shcool.

Lastly, here is the LINK forecast provided by the bybit blog:

The Chainlink price is predicted to experience a bullish trend, sustaining over $23 in 2021 and paving the way for an eventual run up to $60 in 5 years

LINK over $23.00 during 2021? With the price of LINK quoted at press time of $22.22, that’s about as risk-free of a forecast as one can make.

It should be very evident from the forecasts above that all the “experts” are unanimously calling for the price of Chainlink to pretty much remain in the range of its current price.

We strongly disagree.

Our 2021 Chainlink Price Prediction

We’ve said it before, but it needs to be said again: there is a 4-year cycle in cryptocurrency prices. This cycle is most likely – or at least partially – caused by the Bitcoin halving cycle, which itself is a four year cycle.

This cycle has existed since the creation of Bitcoin. While it certainly could, we see no reason for this cycle to suddenly disappear this year.

This 4 year cycle, which has existed in the cryptocurrency market since day one, suggests that 2021 is going to be another roaring year for crypto prices.

Previous 4 Year Cycle Tops

The previous 2 tops of the 4 year cycle were 2013 and 2017. The next cycle peak is due around Christmas time in 2021.

Bitcoin has been through two complete 4 year cycles. Chainlink was released in June of 2017, and thus we don’t have a full cycle year to use as reference. Price history only goes back to mid September of that year. as such, we don’t have the data from a previous cycle to use as a basis for making a prediction for this cycle.

Instead, we are going to look at our projected multipliers for Bitcoin, Ethereum, and Stellar Lumens, and reason that the multiplier for LINK will probably be similar.

What Multiple For LINK?

We are predicting bitcoin to go up in price by a factor of 15.4 times to reach its high at the end of this year.

We are predicting Stellar Lumens to go up in price by a factor of 20 to 74 times to reach its high at the end of this year.

We are predicting Ethereum to go up in price by a factor of 18 to 34 times to reach its high at the end of this year.

LINK started 2021 at a price of $11.87 on January 1.

Chainlink 30x This Year

We believe that LINK’s price performance this year will mirror that of XLM and ETH. As such, we are going to use a multiplier of 30x.

Using this multiplier, we predict a price high for LINK at the end of this year to be $356.10.

Our LINK 2021 Price Prediction: $356.10

That’s our LINK prediction. While it may seem unreasonably high, let us remind you that at that price the total Market Cap of Chainlink would only be about $150 billion. As of press time, Ethereum has a total market cap of $140 billion. We believe it is reasonable to forecast LINK could reach a similar market cap.

What’s Chainlink (LINK)?

Chainlink is actually a blockchain platform developed to protect clients against unauthorized access when exchanging data while working for complicated smart contracts. The Chainlink solution offers advanced data protection both outside and inside of the blockchain.

The Chainlink blockchain consists of special nodes known as oracles. For the network to operate right, the smart contracts have to do the job properly, as well as the data sent to them should be dependable. A decentralized oracle network verifies the input data from different sources and then sends them to an intelligent contract. This achieves greater accuracy of input info, and that is at times difficult to confirm in a centralized fashion. Additionally, that eliminates data manipulation. The Chainlink oracle serves as a dependable bridge between data providers and the customers of theirs.

Chainlink is an answer necessary for blockchain to evolve.

Smart contracts enable you to move cryptocurrency from one address to the next when certain conditions are actually met. Readily available for public viewing in the blockchain, smart contracts are actually invariable, which implies that the parameters of the agreement or maybe contract features cannot be changed once they are deployed.

Smart contracts requiring off chain data need to have a dependable source to properly transfer details to the chain before this information is transferred forth and back to any off chain party. The communication issue had formerly held back the improvement of smart contracts. Nevertheless, with the growth of oracles, that issue is a factor of the past. Smart contracts may today be used for an assortment of scenarios.

Oracles

Oracles are actually used to transfer actual data to the blockchain via smart contracts. Any data could be transferred, weather forecast, the football or price details match score. Decentralized financing (DeFi) is actually probably the most typical use of an oracle because these platforms need probably the most correct and trustworthy sources of information readily available to avoid errors.

An oracle is actually a middleman or maybe middleware that functions like a bridge between a number of parties during the data transfer to and out of a blockchain. Oracle checks and transmits serious data to various blockchain ecosystems in which the information is then utilised. When oracles utilized in conjunction with smart contracts, they confirm that the conditions of the intelligent contract are actually fulfilled and that the data provided is actually dependable.

Chainlink’s Applications

Centralized oracles include a problem: if the system fails, it is able to result in a failure on some other platforms, possibly putting users’ funds at risk. If one single oracle shuts down for a short time, it is able to cause chaos for a lot of people. Which generates significant trust issues for a centralized oracle network.

Chainlink’s network of decentralized node operators is financially urged to attain a consensus on data reliability. Abusers are actually penalized for playing unfairly, and the data of theirs gets rejected without reaching consensus with the majority of the network. That is the decentralization element which makes the Chainlink network very safe.

Just how does Chainlink (LINK) work?

Chainlink (LINK) is actually a decentralized network of oracles whose main objective is actually connecting smart contracts with info coming out of the planet. Since a blockchain doesn’t have access that is totally free entry to info outside of the system of its, the oracle acts as an info channel in an intelligent contract.

The Chainlink network uses as its underlying asset LINK tokens, that are required to extract off network data flows. All tokens are actually created into a readable blockchain and off chain network computing system which offers a reliable, secure workflow.

Chainlink is based on clients and information providers. Clients choose specific desired data, as well as providers share just this data. Being a guarantee, data providers block a particular percent of LINK tokens if they publish an offer for data. These tokens may be confiscated in the event of vendor misconduct. At exactly the same time, Chainlink uses the oracle reputation system to gather and assess the data provided. When everything goes smoothly, suppliers just receive the payment of theirs, and everybody is satisfied.

Bottom line: Chainlink connects data providers with the buyers and has a very bright future.

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