Long Game 8: Elendel Gang War

[Ashiok]

Well... If the GM doesn't make a spec doc, I will.

The spec doc will happen, like it or not...

We can have it bookmarked so that people can see what we say, cycle by cycle.

[Wyrmhero]

Kasimir, on 27 Aug 2014 - 6:30 PM, said:

Ah, but did we break Google Docs or King's browser? Can Google Docs actually be broken?

We go where no Elimination doc has gone before...

And if we keep this up, Bartbug's just gonna go, "Sorry guys, no spec doc."

A word doc is a minimum of around 26.5KB when empty. A 3000-word document (just words, barely any formatting) that I have on my computer is 45.5KB, so we can estimate that 1KB is approximately 160 words (~6 Bytes a word. Believable? Certainly, with formatting). Therefore, if we did a Google Doc of the size of House Urbain then, ignoring formatting, we can estimate that 100,000 words would take up 625KB of space.

Google's servers can be estimated to hold approximately 10 exabytes of storage, or so XKCD would have me believe. An exabyte is 1 million terrabytes, or a thousand million million KB. Therefore, we need approximately 1.45 x 10¹⁷ words to fill up all of Google's servers. If you prefer, that's one-and-a-half thousand million million words (a tenth of a British trillion, or an American somethingillion). This is corrected for extra bit of data needed for every new Google Doc we need every time we hit ~1 million characters (thanks to QC for pointing that out), as from the Urbain doc calculation we see this is another ~5% data.

That doesn't sound like a lot when written like that, so let's put it into perspective. It can be estimated that the entirety of the Library of Congress is just 10 Terrabytes, or 20 thousand million KB. In other words, you could fit a million Libraries of Congress into Google's data severs. In fact, you could fit everything humanity knew about the world and all the data we produced before 2000AD on Google's servers alone. But nowadays, we have images and video everywhere, so because of that we see a lot more than 10 exabytes of data being made every year.

Alternatively, let's look at in relevant terms. My UK hardback copy of Words of Radiance is 1087 pages long, including the Ars Arcanum. A random page in the book can be estimated to have ~600 words (page 631, if you wondered) on it, so Words of Radiance contains roughly 660,000 words, and takes up approximately 4000KB of space. It would take 2.5 million million copies of Words of Radiance to fill Google's estimated servers.

Previous Long Games have taken around 7 Cycles to finish, or 14 days in real-time. Gamma, Kas and Renegade and I would have to write approximately 46,000,000,000 copies of Words of Radiance each day to manage that. Assuming we're boring people with no lives and we spend only a third of our day sleeping or otherwise occupied, we would each have to write 800,000 words (or 1.2 Words of Radiance ) every second for all of that time to manage this goal - We would need to write more in a second than Sanderson writes a year.

Challenge accepted.

 

bartbug, on 27 Aug 2014 - 6:57 PM, said:

Actually, I wasn't going to do a spec doc in the first place. I was getting close to relenting, but now...

I'll see. I actually took a break from the site, and the spec doc must have been a new innovation, because it wasn't in the first few games I played in. I'll see when we start the game.

Mwahaha. The GM controls all.

Curses, foiled!

 

Ashiok, on 27 Aug 2014 - 7:27 PM, said:

Well... If the GM doesn't make a spec doc, I will.

The spec doc will happen, like it or not...

We can have it bookmarked so that people can see what we say, cycle by cycle.

We'll create our own Spec Doc! With Shardblades! And Mistborn! In fact, forget the Spec Doc!

Though if Bartbug doesn't want to make one, I'd be willing to do it as well. Gamma's also offered already >>. It seems people will speculate regardless, so might as well make it official/officially-unofficial. If one of us four did it, then we only have ourselves to blame for when we have to trawl through and censor Gamma people so it could be posted on the forum .

 

Edit: For anyone wondering, at the normal rate it took the House Urbain Doc to get where it was, it would take the four of us roughly 6 thousand million years to fill Google's servers - Might be a bit of a tall order.

Edited August 27, 2014 by Wyrmhero

[bartbug]

i don't care if you make one, I just won't be making an official one. i.e., this game will be crazy enough for me to manage, and every single corner that I can cut, I will.

 

@Quitecontrary: It's a hassle to update the player list, so I do it every night. You'll be on there by tomorrow morning.

[Lightsworn Panda]

A word doc is a minimum of around 26.5KB when empty. A 3000-word document (just words, barely any formatting) that I have on my computer is 45.5KB, so we can estimate that 1KB is approximately 160 words (~6 Bytes a word. Believable? Certainly, with formatting). Therefore, if we did a Google Doc of the size of House Urbain then, ignoring formatting, we can estimate that 100,000 words would take up 625KB of space.

Google's servers can be estimated to hold approximately 10 exabytes of storage, or so XKCD would have me believe. An exabyte is 1 million terrabytes, or a thousand million million KB. Therefore, we need approximately 1.45 x 10¹⁷ words to fill up all of Google's servers. If you prefer, that's one-and-a-half thousand million million words (a tenth of a British trillion, or an American somethingillion). This is corrected for extra bit of data needed for every new Google Doc we need every time we hit ~1 million characters (thanks to QC for pointing that out), as from the Urbain doc calculation we see this is another ~5% data.

That doesn't sound like a lot when written like that, so let's put it into perspective. It can be estimated that the entirety of the Library of Congress is just 10 Terrabytes, or 20 thousand million KB. In other words, you could fit a million Libraries of Congress into Google's data severs. In fact, you could fit everything humanity knew about the world and all the data we produced before 2000AD on Google's servers alone. But nowadays, we have images and video everywhere, so because of that we see a lot more than 10 exabytes of data being made every year.

Alternatively, let's look at in relevant terms. My UK hardback copy of Words of Radiance is 1087 pages long, including the Ars Arcanum. A random page in the book can be estimated to have ~600 words (page 631, if you wondered) on it, so Words of Radiance contains roughly 660,000 words, and takes up approximately 4000KB of space. It would take 2.5 million million copies of Words of Radiance to fill Google's estimated servers.

Previous Long Games have taken around 7 Cycles to finish, or 14 days in real-time. Gamma, Kas and Renegade and I would have to write approximately 46,000,000,000 copies of Words of Radiance each day to manage that. Assuming we're boring people with no lives and we spend only a third of our day sleeping or otherwise occupied, we would each have to write 800,000 words (or 1.2 Words of Radiance ) every second for all of that time to manage this goal - We would need to write more in a second than Sanderson writes a year.

Challenge accepted.

 

Curses, foiled!

 

We'll create our own Spec Doc! With Shardblades! And Mistborn! In fact, forget the Spec Doc!

Though if Bartbug doesn't want to make one, I'd be willing to do it as well. Gamma's also offered already >>. It seems people will speculate regardless, so might as well make it official/officially-unofficial. If one of us four did it, then we only have ourselves to blame for when we have to trawl through and censor Gamma people so it could be posted on the forum .

 

Edit: For anyone wondering, at the normal rate it took the House Urbain Doc to get where it was, it would take the four of us roughly 6 thousand million years to fill Google's servers - Might be a bit of a tall order.

 

Just... Just blow us away with facts, why don't you!? 

[Ashiok]

Such numbers, much wow...

Let's at least fill a couple google docs.

Also, most LGs are closer to three weeks, and you would have help int he form of my erraticness.

[jaelre]

All I gather is that Gamma, Ren and Kasimir (and possibly Wyrm) just need to petition I-don't-know-what to have the Words of Radiance measurement certified and added to the ISU.

 

I'm unfortunately unable to join this game, even if it does look very interesting. Best of luck! *tips hat*

Edited August 28, 2014 by jaelre

[Lightsworn Panda]

This game wins the award for having the most spectators, methinks.

[Tulir]

And we need more.  Anyone who lurks here, or has even the slightest idea that this might be fun, join us! We need more people, and these things really are fun to be a part of.

[A Joe in the Bush]

Can I sign up as two different characters?

[bartbug]

Haha. Urm, no. Sorry Joe.

[+Quitecontrary]

@bart, thanks.

@Wyrm, the calculations are impressive, but you based it on how Word stores data. Google doesn't store Google docs data the same way. They store it text-compressed. And as far as storage goes, it doesn't even count against your Drive storage at all. (But that long explanation makes me nod and say, "Oh so that's how fast they can fill out the page!")

With the expectation that this spec doc will be massive, you should just create a Google Doc with links to each cycle's spec doc. I'm pretty sure you wouldn't have a problem with space then.

I don't want to bolster additions to the spectators, but Google Docs allows 50 people to edit at the same time, so if there are any more that's planning to join you, it will be a party!

[Mailliw73]

Huh. I just realized I've already played 6 games in a row, no breaks. 

this is my twelfth.

Wow. This game is going to be quite different. A lot of experienced, skilled players are sitting out and a lot of new players are joining. This'll definitely be interesting.

[Alvron]

Alron is ready to play.

 

A simple fella who enjoys the occasional wine or cigar.  There is absolutely nothing special about him at all.  In fact he looks so ordinary that most people don't pay any attention to him.

[Metacognition]

I keep meaning to get signed up, but coming up with a character that doesn't have a background is fairly difficult, so let's see how this goes:

 

Suddenly, there's a loud crack and the walls start to shiver. It's followed by another and another! It was as if a giant was stomping around outside. 

 

...Which isn't actually that far off! The far wall crashes inward with a shower of brick and dust and the silhouette of a large, imposing figure fills the gap.

 

"Yay!" The giant figure exclaims. As he steps into the light, you can see a childish grin on his face. "Hello! Met-al is Met-al! Met-al not care aboot fansee things. Met-al just like to hit things! Also, Met-al never learnd how to not refer to himself in first person. Met-al not care tho, as long a Met-al can hit sumthing!" -you can see an almost sadistic glint in his eyes at that- "Met-al not reely care aboot wat Met-al hit eether...."

 

 

Also, while I'm loving all the fun speculation on the Speculation Doc, I think you guys should go ahead and just set it up already. While I can't say for sure, the last few pages have mainly been about it and not much else and I worry that it might be distracting people from actually getting signed up.

 

Also, Welcome all the new faces! I wish you all the best and I hope that you'll join us for more games in the future. May your time here be full of chaos, fun, and the deaths of your enemies!  

Edited August 28, 2014 by Metacognition

[Pupper]

 

Also, while I'm loving all the fun speculation on the Speculation Doc, I think you guys should go ahead and just set it up already. While I can't say for sure, the last few pages have mainly been about it and not much else and I worry that it might be distracting people from actually getting signed up.

 

Also, Welcome all the new faces! I wish you all the best and I hope that you'll join us for more games in the future. May your time here be full of chaos, fun, and the deaths of your enemies!  

That doc is going to be really interesting to read after this is over. (Yes, I will read all of it. I don't care how long it is )

 

I will probably be joining more games after this, so expect me to be around for awhile! Looked like a lot of fun while I was lurking, and this opening up finally made me come out of my constant lurking. Let's just hope I don't die instantly, knowing me, that will probably happen.

[Aonar]

I was going to leave RP until after I found out which side I was on, but then I started writing... I don't think this really predisposes me to one side over the other, but it's late so I'm not sure.

 

 

Gunfire rang out in a steady rhythm. His stay in Elendel was ostensibly meant to be a vacation, but dealing with corrupt politicians while the city was on the cusp of rioting was frustrating at the best of times. Aonar felt perfectly justified in taking some of his anger out on the gun range’s targets.

 

Ejecting the last cartridge from his rifle, Aonar stood and made his way to see how he’d done. He wasn’t sure why he even bothered anymore. It had been a very long time since he had actually missed. As his father had said, ‘An officer practices until he gets it right; a lawman practices until he never gets it wrong.’

 

Aonar sighed ruefully. He hadn’t exactly ended up following his father’s footsteps as a lawman out in the Roughs, but the advice held true regardless. Most of his colleagues felt that he spent an unseemly amount of time shooting for a gentleman. He wondered briefly if they’d feel the same way knowing how many times that practice had saved his life.

 

Packing up the target and his rifle, he headed back towards the manor.

 

***

 

Before Aonar had even made it halfway across the grounds, a boy ran up to him, breathing hard. “I’ve a message for you, sir. Man who gave it to me said you’d give me six boxings.”

 

“Six boxings? Really?” Aonar raised an eyebrow. Six boxings was a fair bit of change just for delivering a message. “And who exactly was this man?”

 

The boy looked vaguely insulted that Aonar wouldn’t take him at his word. “No clue, sir. He was a big guy, with a long grey coat and a nice hat. Couldn’t really see much else.”

 

Aonar felt himself blanch. Rust and Ruin. Numbly, he handed five boxings over to the boy. He looked about to protest, but seeing Aonar’s expression he handed over the message and took off.

 

Opening it up, it read:

 

The Riots have begun. You know where you need to be.

 

     ~Ironeyes

 

 

 

If anyone's interested, here's an up to date player List.

 

1. Aonar (AonarFaileas)
2. Alim (Malliw73)
3. Jedal (The Only Joe)
4. Jain (Lightsworn Panda)
5. Tulir (Tulir)
6. Popeye (navybrandt)
7. Willa (little wilson)
8. Kamden (dants)
9. Peng (jasonpenguin)
10. Koll (killersquirrel59)
11. Araris (Arais Valerian)
12. Quitania (Quitecontrary)
13. Terra (Pupper)
14. Bunnt (Binnut)
15. Alron (Alvron)
16. Met-al (Metacognition)

17. Taliz Duede (twelthrootoftwo)

18. Morgan Hanks (the Gleeman)

19. Satrams (a smart guy)

20. Lucky (luckat)

Edited September 2, 2014 by AonarFaileas

[+Quitecontrary]

Might as well RP while I have some time.

 

The warm humid air struck the young woman in the balcony, and she breathed it in, wrinkling her nose at the smell of oil and horse and sweaty workers right below where she was standing. It wasn't even noon yet, and she already wanted to leave the summer manor near the bay and go back to the city.

 

Adjusting her one shouldered fitted lavender dress, she turned around to see her suitor staring at her, a nervous smile on his pale face. The right side of her face was smooth, unmarked and beautiful, but as she turned to face him, the sunlight fell on the other half of her face. An ugly scar ran from below her left eye, going down the side of her neck to her left shoulder covered by the sleeve, and the scar went on to the middle of her arm.

 

"You shouldn't have bothered coming over, Raim. I told my aunt that I was leaving for the city tonight.", she said, facing him fully, aware of how uncomfortable her scar made him.

 

He leaned forward and looked at her, or at least tried, and then decided to talk to her unmarred shoulder.

"You are almost never around. I don't know what you find so fascinating in the city. My father told me that riots have begun to happen, and I worry about your safety, Quitty."

 

She hissed, narrowing her eyes angrily, "I told you never to call me that. My name is Quitania. And you really should be leaving. I'm pretty sure your father is looking for you by now."

 

She huffed and left him staring after her, and went to the next room, her haven in the manor, her dear departed father's office. She sat on the large leather chair and looked out the window, tapping her finger to her pursed lips.

 

She must find a way to get out of this arrangement. Marriage was not for her, especially not with that weakling! How she missed the city, and her pretty glass knives. She opened a drawer and took out a revolver, her father’s, and fingered it lovingly. She held the grip tightly and  considered shooting the fop by the balcony. An easy way out.

 

No, she thought. She must bide her time and find another solution. There were many surprises waiting for her in the city, and just thinking about the danger that awaited her there made her pulse race with excitement.

[little wilson]

Bartbug, can we extend sign-ups to Monday (Labor Day)? I'm sure a lot of the Stateside players (at least) have plans this weekend, especially for those that it's a three-day weekend. I'm going camping tomorrow, and while I should have access to wi-fi, I'm not likely to use it to keep up with a game. Extending the sign ups will also give others more time to sign up, if they want to.

[Peng the Just]

Bartbug, can we extend sign-ups to Monday (Labor Day)? I'm sure a lot of the Stateside players (at least) have plans this weekend, especially for those that it's a three-day weekend. I'm going camping tomorrow, and while I should have access to wi-fi, I'm not likely to use it to keep up with a game. Extending the sign ups will also give others more time to sign up, if they want to.

yes. please. I will be out of town till Monday evening and may or may not have internet access

[bartbug]

Yes, I think that's a great idea. Sign ups are extended to Labor Day.

[Curiosity]

Also, while I'm loving all the fun speculation on the Speculation Doc, I think you guys should go ahead and just set it up already. While I can't say for sure, the last few pages have mainly been about it and not much else and I worry that it might be distracting people from actually getting signed up.

 

 

If anyone wants to speculate more on the affect of speculation on this game, we could just set up a meta-speculation doc...

[Pupper]

So, since it's gonna be awhile until we start, I decided to do some RP. I'm not the best writer, but oh well.

Terra looked down the iron-sights of her pistol, aiming at the target. She fired, and the sound of the gunshot filled her ears. The bullet hole was right in the center of the target. Terra figured it wouldn't hurt to get some practice in before heading off to Elendel, as one needed to know how to defend their self. Anyone who didn't would most likely end up bleeding out in a cold, dark alleyway. Or that's at least what her mother had said, before she died of an illness, around 3 years ago. Since then, Terra had given up on anyone people considered "Good", as no one had helped her or her mother when she was ill, while Terra barely had enough money to feed herself much less take care of someone who was deathly ill.
Terra had taken to stealing to survive. She didn't feel bad about it, though. No one helped her when she was starving, so they did not deserve her kindness. She wasn't afraid to kill, but she avoided it when possible. It was much too messy. Terra preferred to sneak in the shadows, leaving no traces that she had been there.
Most of the time, she got in and out without any problems, getting rather rich in the process. But, one time she was stealing from a noble's home, she got caught by a guard. That guard had ended up destroying her left eye with a sword, but Terra killed him quickly after. Terra now wore an eye patch, covering her damaged eye. Since then, she had never been caught.

Terra shot 10 more bullets, all of them hitting the center. She put the gun back in her hidden holster, and went back to her home, to finish getting ready to head to Elendel.

Edited August 30, 2014 by Pupper

[twelfthrootoftwo]

I've been tossing up whether I'll have the time to play, and it looks like I will. Taliz Duede is an engineer, with a penchant for messy notebooks.

Taliz carefully positioned the ruler, and marked in a few more lines. She frowned at the plan. This page was nearly finished, but if she made a mistake now, she'd spend a few more hours drawing it again. Stomach twisting, she looked over at her notes, and flicked through a few sketches to see if she'd ruined her work. No, that was correct. Her sketches hadn't been scaled properly, that was all.

This was the worst part of the process. The test models of their new double-flow piston had run beautifully, but the final product required proper drawings. No problem to solve, no challenge to overcome. No promise of discovery just around the corner. Just hours of precise lines and careful angles.

Still, it would be nice to see the project she'd been working on for the better part of two years fulfilling its purpose, and that meant preparing for manufacture. The new design promised greatly increased efficiency. Nothing flashy, but then she didn't really want the kind of publicity that, say, an impenetrable armoured car would attract.

She shook her head. Now was not the time to start daydreaming. She wanted the plans done for tonight - meaning no mistakes.

[killersquirrel59]

I suppose it's about time I chime in with an initial rp post.

 

Koll walked calmly down the alley. His quarry had nowhere to run, so there was no need to hurry. 

 

Stupid foreigner, he thought, shaking his head. Everyone knows the alleys off of Demoux Promenade are dead ends. 

 

He came upon the man cowering against the back wall, whimpering. The scrapes on the man's hands and scuffs on his suit showed where he had tried to climb the sheer brick wall. Stupid foreigner. He turned to face Koll, eyes wide with panic. "Please," he blabbered, "please I'll get the money! There's no need to do anything rash. I'm good for it, really. Your boss knows me. I just need one more week please don't..."

 

His voice cut off in a muffled cry of pain as Koll backhanded him across the mouth. Whimpering targets always made him angry. Why was it that no one understood the rules? You borrow money, you pay it back with interest. You don't pay it back, you get hurt. You still don't pay it back, well then an example needs to be made to ensure others remember the rules. Really this isn't that complicated.

 

"Jessel Drax," Koll said in a flat, almost bored tone while Jessel spit out the teeth Koll had just knocked out. "You are in no position for an extension. You're three weeks late and haven't made a single payment. My boss has already written off your debt as a loss. Now are we going to do this easy or hard? If you make it easy, I'll make it quick. Make me fight for it, and things might have to get messy."

 

With a light of desperate fear in his eyes Jessel snarled and charged Koll. Stupid man. Why do they never make it easy? 

 

Koll pulled out his dueling club and went to work. I hate the messy ones. I'm going to need a new suit again.

[bartbug]

So the Game will officially start at 6:00 PM on Tuesday. If anyone is on the fence about signing up (and has not seen the spec doc) then please do! For this game to be truly great, more players would be greatly appreciated.