@Mithrandir24601 italics is done with asterisks, not underscores

oh... huh. Actually it's both, I guess

@SCPilot fighting a guy in full plate with only a katana is like fighting a tank with a rifle.

though I wonder what kind of armor samurai used, if it wouldn't have been at least good enough for them to ditch their swords and end the fight with wrestling and knives.

@Mithrandir24601 I just remembered, it's probably the newline

That's true @DaaaahWhoosh. Their armor was very box-like (samurai armor that is). Low ranking samurai or retainers had a more flexible armor. But knights were able to do many things while wearing armor like jump, roll, backflip, climb ladders, and even swim (although swimming was a bit awkward).

@SCPilot I take it the padding getting waterlogged wasn't too big an obstacle to swimming?

Well, according to what I remember, the biggest disadvantage of knight's armor was that it got hot very quickly. Also, the surcoats that the Crusaders wore gave them a good bit of additional protection against arrows. In fact, seeing European knights looking like porcupines might have made them look quite fierce to the Muslim warriors.

@SCPilot yeah -- heat buildup was definitely a major obstacle when wearing armor

I think it is a major obstacle for any armor you wear (unless it's Iron Man's armor ;) )

(many modern-day PPE ensembles have similar problems with heat buildup, although there is tech such as vortex coolers that can help somewhat with it)

That makes sense.

@SCPilot Oh, I wasn't trying to imply any level of inflexibility. Just that when your sword can't cut through the opponent's armor, the only thing left is to knock them over and stab them in the eyes.

That's true @DaaaahWhoosh.

@DaaaahWhoosh -- how hard would it be to swim long distances in armor anyway?

@Shalvenay harder than swimming long distances without armor, that's for sure. If I ever get a full harness, maybe I'll try it out and let you know

@DaaaahWhoosh yeah -- I kind of wonder myself because some people seem to insist that it's utterly impossible because the padding would absorb water to the point of sinking you

Also, knights had to fight a wide range of enemies, from other knights to bandits to brigands (these were peasants who had stolen armor from dead knights or fallen knights [ones that they the brigands had killed]) to Muslim warriors to revolting peasants. So their armor was designed to fend off various weapons that could be used against them. In a way, knights could be send as the ultimate fighter when compared to any ancient or medieval warrior. Even the ninja could be easily defeated by

a knight

But that's debatable as the ninja relied on stealth and deception, so a knight and ninja might not meet in battle.

@SCPilot yeah, but ninjas are largely fictional.

@Shalvenay I'd say swimming in a full gambeson is going to kill you, but what they wore under plate was supposedly thinner. Probably still enough to drown you quickly, I just don't know how quickly

Really? I thought they were real. Well, their talents and what they did are fictional. I mean the shuriken wasn't meant to be used as a weapon but as a distraction. In battle, losing focus for even a second can cause you to die. Also, ninja were basically assassins.

This is one reason why Japanese castles were designed to be very complex and confusing, like a maze to throw off enemies as well as having creaking boards to make it difficult for an assassin to sneak up on you.

The war fan was designed as a backup weapon when one had to leave his sword/other weapons behind. It could be used as a club or a mini-sword to slash someone's neck.

So, Japanese and European warfare evolved very differently. The Japanese, Chinese, and Koreans had very similar technologies so if it wasn't for the distance and geography, Europe could have easily walked right in and conquered Asia.

from what I've heard, historical ninjas were just spies. So some of them might've done the cool ninja stuff, but just like today most of them probably would've just been collecting information

Indeed. Ninjas were mainly spies, but did function as assassins.

some of them, probably. Just not as many as some would like to think

But like I said, given the technological superiority of Europe, Asia could have been knocked over by European armies, but given the distance and geography (not to mention that Europe wasn't completely united, unless a Crusade was called for), Asia was safe from being conquered.

@SCPilot I suspect the logistics of such would have proven to be too problematic

That too. Not to mention, what would the Europeans have done if they had conquered all of Asia?

"General Winter called" "...yeah?" "and of course, he brought Colonel Mud with him" "oh dear...we aren't stuck in it yet, are we?" "we are. up to our waists. it sucks."

I mean look at Alexander the Great. He tried to go all the way through India, but his armies got scared as they had just encountered enemies who used tactics and weapons that the Greeks had never seen or heard of before. That meant the Greeks' next battle in India could be there last, and they knew it.

In a way, I guess you could say that Alexander did lose at least one battle: getting his men to conquer India and the rest of Asia.

History still says that Alexander the Great was one of the greatest generals/warlords who ever lived since he never lost a battle.

Although he did have a Pyrrhic victory in India.

So, you could say that he did technically lost a battle.

yeah, 'winning' isn't a sign of greatness. Getting what you wanted is.

Well, Alexander wanted to conquer India. He didn't. His men mutinied and demanded to return home.

Come to think of it. What would have happened if he did convinced his men to continue further into Asia?

they would have accelerated too much and escaped the Earth's gravity well

I think he might have been crushed when he ran into the Chinese Empire. Who would have probably gotten curious about these strange foreigners and decided to expand. Alexander's conquests could have caused China to conquer Europe!

But then logistics kicks in.

it does seem like a great worldbuilding project, to explore one side conquering the other, then having to pull out shortly after due to logistics or otherwise the collapse of their empire

it'd make for an interesting blend of cultures

But since we are on the subject of alternate history. What would have happened if the Crusades had succeeded. I was playing Crusader Kings II once, and I was playing France (my king, King Philip, had died and his daughter, the new queen, led the charge and retook the Holy Land).

It got me wondering. Of course, Crusader Kings II is one of those games where alternate history happens a lot.

@SCPilot it seems to me like the Crusades were cyclic. If one side had 'won', the other side would come back in 20-50 years and retake what was lost. Until neither side wants to keep trying.

logistics, or as some unnamed hobgoblin warlord put it: "beans, bolts, and bandages -- can't fight a war without 'em"

Well, I actually held onto Jerusalem for a long time. Even spread Christianity into Asia and India. But yeah, that's alternate histoyr.

@Shalvenay that makes sense.

@SCPilot that's the thing about humans, though. Good or bad, they all die, and someone new gets to take a shot.

That's true. Anyhow, @DaaaahWhoosh I'm guessing you've played For Honor?

I played the beta. Wasn't too good at it though.

Okay. Did you like it?

yeah, it was a good time. If I had more time to devote to multiplayer games, I might've picked up the full game

the knight had a terrible ochs guard though

Ah okay.

Well, I've been working on the Verrisir homeworld. Decided that there's a bit more neon in the atmosphere which explains why their sky is orange. In addition to having an orange sun.

Lol! I just saw something funny!

You would think that the three factions of the For Honor setting would try and learn each other's languages.

Which apparently consists of Latin, Japanese, and Icelandic.

on a different note @SCPilot -- I was kind of wondering what a regular "gathering of dragons" would look like xD

Hm.....I think it would take place in some place that would be considered sacred to dragons, maybe like a dragon graveyard.

@SCPilot interesting, a gathering to venerate their ancestors if you will?

Yep. Also, it could be done as a meeting to decide who would lead the dragons and to discuss important matters.

Howdy guys.

hey there @JDługosz

Yipes! ffmpeg.exe just died.

oops!

And that's hot on the heels of Adobe Media Encoder hanging.

It was only hanging on this one video. Previous ones just like it worked (again) just fine.

Hello @JDługosz.

Updated ffmpeg to an even newer version.

wow, it crashes too!

@JDługosz bug found? XD

can someone else try it for me?

hmm, the input is 30 gigabytes, so maybe not.

@JDługosz try bisecting the input file and seeing if you can find a specific segment of the data that causes the crash?

@Shalvenay I was just thinking that… need to find the ffmpeg commands to cut the file into two smaller files!

I do know it's stopping around frame 2020 to 2040.

If I don't use the hqdn3d filter it encoded fine.

Anyway, here's what I'm working on: youtube.com/playlist?list=PLQkSJHxhFx-Ny-Rh9ow1IbyJF0-CIV5ol

The problem file is a Jiangnan ensemble, which means silk(string) and bamboo(woodwind).

Well, it also encoded using hqdn3d with defaults (rather than my arguments). That made the file 32MB as opposed to 40MB without the filter. Still pretty good savings.

Nobody still here?

I'm still here. Just eating. Not sure what to tell you to do. This isn't my area of expertise.

Weird…the group isn't using a bamboo flute. Isn't ruan also "silk"? Yea: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/…

So instead of “silk and bamboo” they have 4 silks and a fish.

hey there @TrEs-2b

Well, it's getting late, and I have to sign off now. Y'all have a good night and nice talking with y'all!

See ya

Hey, does anyone here watch Artifexian?

@TrEs-2b I've seen a couple of his conlang videos.

Care to watch my freshly uploaded video(s)? Quite a hassle, that last one.

What do you mean?

scroll back.

@Green (ISO tea would be funny) actually, you can make some bizarre blend and call it “Green tea”, named after yourself.

oh, sure I check them out

@JDługosz I'm not super familiar with the ISO standards but with 21k of them, something is going to be funky.

@JDługosz Pretty good

@James are we competing on weird ISO standards or just really obscure ones?

@DaaaahWhoosh I tried asterisks first and it didn't work :/ test

Oh, it's fine now :)

yep, that'll be it

The Sandbox has been protected again. Can someone with the corresponding privilege please unprotect it? Sandbox.

hey there @Secespitus and @Mithrandir24601

Hello @Shalvenay and good night. It's late so I can't chat.