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A Resident which is the proxy of another nation, and primarily exists within Refugia to accrue influence without community presence, is defined as a "Sleeper".

2. Resident may only be ejected or barred from the region in one of the following circumstances:

Unruly conduct, where the offending Resident has not been receptive to intervention.
Impending threat, where the Office of Operations determines the Resident poses a risk to the stability of Refugia or the security of its inhabitants.
Unregistered Sleeper, where the primary operator of a Sleeper has not declared the aims and ownership of that nation to the Office of Operations and Arch-Administrator.
The Resident expresses, aligns with, or otherwise represents fascism, hate speech, or intolerance.

3. The reasoning for all ejections of Residents must be publicly reported by the responsible party, and the ejected nation may appeal the ejection by soliciting a review to the Regional Council.

An appeal vote must be concluded within seven days or with all Councillors having voted.
An appeal vote is considered approved if it has less than two Against votes.
The banning of Non-Resident nations shall not require public reporting.

Member States:

4. Member States are defined as Residents with both a residency of no less than seven days and a continuous World Assembly membership over the same period.

A Resident will lose its status as a Member State if it elects to depart the Region, its status is self-requested to be revoked, or the Resident is ejected.
Residents that lose their status may apply to reobtain it unless they are barred from the Region. It shall be reinstated if the Resident meets the criteria in RRS 4.

5. Residents may apply for Member State status in conditions where admission to the World Assembly is declined, rejected, or impossible.

Residents applying for a World Assembly Exemption must have resided within the Region for a period of time not less than fourteen days and receive the unanimous approval from the Regional Council to provide the exemption.
In the event that an exempted Member State accrues influence in another region, requests their status be revoked, or is ejected from the region, the Member State's exemption status is revoked. The Member State can apply to have this status reinstated, following the same protocol as laid out in RRS 5(a).

6. Member States are entitled to submit any proposal, amendment, repeal, or revision to any revised statute, including this document in its entirety. Votes must be easily accessible and include the option to abstain. Only one vote is allotted to each Member State per referendum.

Proposals must be supported by at least one other Member State, which may be referred to as a "second."
Votes will last a period of seven days from the time of announcement and will be enacted or discarded upon conclusion.
Proposals which have been defeated will trigger a cooldown period on the sponsor Member State from submitting a new proposal for seven days after the end of the poll defeat.

Government Roles and Responsibilities:

7. The Regional Council is defined as the co-equal heads of government in Refugia. It is comprised of the following:

The Arch-Administrator, defined as Refuge Isle, which acts as the head of state for the Region for any legal or foreign circumstance which requires such. This Councillor shall:
- Appoint and dismiss Councillors into positions as the result of elections to their respective office.
- Maintain records of significance to the Region and its history.
- Verify voter integrity by maintaining a roster of valid Member States.
- Cast votes corresponding to the will of the Region's voting Member States during the circumstance of also being the Region's World Assembly Delegate.
The Councillor of Foreign Affairs, whose responsibilities are defined as management and maintenance of the travel portals within the Region. The Councillor of Foreign Affairs seeks out ideologically-similar regions to Refugia and builds relationships with them. To that end, the Councillor oversees the construction, maintenance, and withdrawal of embassies. This Councillor shall:
- Maintain the relationships between Refugia and its allies.
- Appoint and dismiss Envoys, as the Councillor feels necessary, to aid in their duties.
- Publish a dispatch to the Region which provides an informed opinion for the reason an embassy should be opened or closed.
- Initiate a four-day referendum among Member States, to determine if an embassy may be opened or closed. Such openings and closures may not occur without a referendum, and may not be acted upon contrary to the referendum.
The Councillor of Culture, whose responsibilities are defined as orchestrating cultural events and developing the identity of the Refugi culture. This Councillor shall:
- Develop a Regional Eco Report to fulfill goals stipulated by RRS 14(a) and RRS 14(b) by identifying ways in which Member States of the Region may contributed towards the environmental targets established therein.
- Publish regular updates to the Regional Eco Report to maintain its relevance and timely advice.
- When additional assistance is necessary to fulfill the duties of office, appoint an assistant.
The Councillor of Operations, whose responsibilities are defined as directing the Office of Operations, identifying, resolving, or guarding against internal and external threats. This Councillor shall:
- Identify and respond as necessary to threats or crises which target or impact the Region.
- Eject or bar Residents as necessary via Refugia's Border Control in an applicable circumstance of any subsection of RRS 2.
- Develop Refugia's intelligence apparatus to the extent necessary to carry out the subsections of this statute.
- Maintain a registry of Sleeper Residents and their respective controllers.
- Appoint and dismiss "Wards", acting as staff for the Office of Operations, to carry out subsections of this statute as directed by the Office's Councillor.
The Councillor of World Assembly Affairs, whose responsibilities are defined as facilitating discussions on World Assembly resolutions-at-vote, developing dispatches with Information For Voters (IFV) on current resolutions at vote, and providing regional recommendations for votes to the World Assembly Delegate. This Councillor shall:
- Read and consider proposals in both the General Assembly and Security Council.
- Initiate discussions in the Regional Message Board on upcoming proposals, and explain their impressions based on a reading of the draft and records of international debate.
- Develop and publish regional dispatches which provide information for voters about the current resolutions at vote in the World Assembly.
- If needed, oversee appointment of a second to assist in any of the aforementioned responsibilities.

8. The World Assembly Delegate is the Region's envoy to the World Assembly. The Region shall support the Delegate's endorsement, and the Delegate shall apply that support towards World Assembly approval and voting stances that it believes represent the Region's values.

The Delegate shall make a public statement to the Region if they choose to not vote in alignment with the Regional majority regarding a World Assembly vote.
The Delegate nation is designated and dismissed by the Arch-Administrator, and no nations other than the designated nation is considered the rightful Delegate.
A Delegate who loses Member State status or World Assembly membership resigns their tenure, and the nation which possesses the highest level of World Assembly endorsements may serve as Delegate in the interim until a new Delegate is designated.

Government Accountability:

9. All Residents within the Region have the right to solicit an official Regional ruling, opinion, or position from the Regional Council, and delivered by a representative thereof, on subjects of:

A Foreign Affairs policy, position, or perspective.
The status of a Member State.
Challenges regarding any ejection or barring of nations from the Region, where a majority of the Regional Council may reverse the action.
Challenges regarding the legality of activity by a Councillor or their staff, where a majority of the Regional Council may reverse the action.

10. At any time, a Member State can charge a Regional Councillor or Delegate of neglect in their duties or mismanagement of their position. Their charge will be submitted in writing to the Arch-Administrator only after a second member state has seconded the motion.

The charge must contain a list of grievances against the accused and arguments as to why these grievances should result in the removal of the accused prior to the next election.
If RRS 10(a) is met, the Arch-Administrator will call for a vote of No Confidence among the Member States, lasting five days, and decided by a simple majority.

If the No Confidence vote passes, the target Councillor is removed from office, a new election will immediately be called for that Councillor seat.

[li]If the No Confidence vote is defeated, a standard RRS 5(c) cooldown is applied to the submitting Member State.[/li]
[/list]

11. In the event that a Councillor or a Councillor's staff operates in contradiction to the RRS, the Arch-Administrator may suspend the powers of that Councillor or staff member until such time as it may be reviewed under a RRS 9 ruling, which is automatically invoked upon suspension.

Elections:

12. The Arch-Administrator will call elections for all democratic Council seats according to the following convention:

Candidacy Period	Feb 12 - 19	May 12 - 19	Aug 12 - 19	Nov 12 - 19
Voting Period	Feb 20 - 26	May 20 - 26	Aug 20 - 26	Nov 20 - 26
Transition Period	Feb 27 - 28	May 27 - 28	Aug 27 - 28	Nov 27 - 28

During the Candidacy Period, any Member State may declare their intention to stand for office.
During the Voting Period, all Member States may vote in all elections via ranked preference instant-runoff; candidates are eliminated by fewest votes in each round of ballot counting.
During the Transition Period, elected councillors will receive overlapping access and powers with their predecessors, and all predecessors are dismissed at the end of the Period.

13. The following rules govern election procedure:

Candidacy declarations must be posted to the Regional Message Board.
Candidacies composed of multiple Member States are invalid, and candidacies where a Resident has lost Member State status during the election cycle become invalid.
Member States are prohibited from occupying more than one Council seat at a time or occupying the same Council seat more than two times consecutively.
In the case that a Member State has won multiple Council seats, they must select their Council seat of preference within 24 hours of the Voting Period's conclusion, otherwise the selection will be carried out by the Arch-Administrator.
If a position is unable to be filled or becomes vacant by resignation, absence from existence, or legal impossibility, the Arch-Administrator may act in that position's capacity or appoint an individual who will serve in that capacity for the remainder of the term.

Goals and Ideals:

14. The Region defines the goals for both its Members and the Region collectively in the following ways:

Reach an average Environmental Beauty score of 1,300 on or before December 31, 2024, and maintained thereafter.
Reach an average Eco-Friendliness score of 3,750 on or before December 31, 2024, and maintained thereafter.

15. The Region defines its military alignment as "Neutral", shunning the agendas and obligations of the world's self-interested regimes, and only acting in the direct defence of the Region's allies when determined to be necessary by the Councillor of Operations.

16. The Region observes January 31st, the anniversary of the founding of the Region, as a region-wide holiday.

Last updated 9 Mar 2024

Refugia / [at vote] The Culture of the R...

Last post by Luca - December 03, 2024, 08:48:25 PM

The Culture of the Romans I: Corinthians

PREAMBLE. The Culture of the Romans is a reform arc based on the idea that the RSS has become swole and should be smaller so that it doesn't scare the children, however it must become smaller in a way that does not allow it to become worse. In reality, the Culture of the Romans was about conquest and pillaging things to prop up their economy that was, itself, not self-sufficient, but that's not as fun to theme your legal reform on;

The Region regards the legal section on Member States to be overly verbose,

Consequently revises RRS 4 through RRS 6 in their entirety to the following content:

Member States:

RRS 4. Member States are defined as Residents with both a residency of no less than seven days and a continuous World Assembly membership over the same period.

A Member State can only lose its status if it is no longer a Resident or no longer a World Assembly member.

RRS 5. Residents may apply for Member State status in cases where World Assembly is impossible if they have resided within the Region of no less than fourteen days and receive the unanimous approval from the Regional Council.

An exempted Member State can only lose Member State status if it accrues influence in another region or requests its status to be terminated.

RRS 6. Member States are entitled to submit revisions to the Refugia Revised Statutes, including this document in its entirety by Regional referendum, with all Member States entitled to a vote.

Proposals must be supported by at least one other Member State, called a Second.
Referendums must be accessible to all Member States, last seven days, include the option to abstain, and be correspondingly enacted or discarded on conclusion.
An author whose proposal has been defeated suffers a seven day cooldown on another referendum submission.

Authored by: Refuge Isle
Seconded by:

Refugia / Re: [draft] Bureaucracy Waits ...

Last post by Natalie - December 03, 2024, 07:41:54 PM

The Junitaki delegation arrives on the back of a large, shaggy dog. It pants as it lumbers into the meeting room, a saturated tongue lolling out of its mouth and leaving a visible trail of drool. The representative dismounts and hurries over to the table.

"I'm so sorry, I'm not late, am I?" They glance around the room taking stock of all one (1) persons present. "...Okay, I am late. I'm terribly sorry, this isn't like me at all, but you would not believe the traffic on the Skyrail today- anyway, I'm not here to bore you with excuses. Let's get brown to brash tax."

They gently slide the proposed text out from under the arm of the sleeping admin and give it a look. Regional Council... Million Dreams... tax haven... everything seemed to check out. They quietly scribbled their name under the Second: field, pushed it back across the polished oaken surface, and retreated to their mount.

Refugia / [at vote] Bureaucracy Waits Fo...

Last post by Aav - November 24, 2024, 06:21:30 PM

Hello Refugia! Something I have come to realize is that confusingly, while I occupy the Refugia Arch-Administrator position, the Refugia Revised Statutes actually says that Luca is the Arch-Administrator because this is written into text.

We should fix that. I therefore propose the following amendment to the Refugia Revised Statutes:

Quote7. The Regional Council is defined as the co-equal heads of government in Refugia. It is comprised of the following:

The Arch-Administrator, defined as ~~Refuge Isle~~ A Million Dreams, which acts as the head of state for the Region for any legal or foreign circumstance which requires such. This Councillor shall:

General Discussion / Review: Peglin

Last post by Natalie - October 28, 2024, 06:03:32 PM

One of the great joys of media is that through its abundance and the accessibility of creation, the most unlikely combinations of ideas can exist for the most unlikely subsections of an audience to enjoy. In gaming, years of innovation and trends falling in and out of favour have led indie developers to some unexpectedly intuitive crossroads, from casino games-meet-roguelikes to card games-meet-roguelikes to... maybe we're a little too fixated on Rogue these days.

Peglin is one such example: Peggle, but it's a roguelike. For the uninitiated, Peggle is like pachinko or Plinko or what have you, where you launch balls down into a board full of pegs, and your goal is to hit and eliminate them. It's earned a surprising level of respect and nostalgia in recent years and there isn't much like it on the market today. Roundguard attempted the same roguelike twist a few years ago and failed to fully capitalize on the concept, but Peglin recently came out of a years-long Early Access development to try and scratch the itch. This review was written based on the 1.0 Steam version on PC.

In terms of roguelikes, Peglin feels closest to Slay the Spire, containing a similar branching map system and elements of deckbuilding. The basic premise of a Peglin run is this: you select a character (each of which has different starting properties), select a starting relic (relics provide passive always-on abilities and perks), and start clearing rooms. After each encounter, you have a chance to buy some items or health, then shoot your ball through the remaining board to travel either left or right down the fork in the map to continue to the next room. At the bottom of the map is a boss; beat it and you go to the next world, beat all three worlds and your run is successful, and then you can go again on a higher difficulty.

Now, combat is pretty simple. You have an inventory of orbs - balls - which effectively constitute your deck. These orbs will have different properties and damage values, and at the start of each battle this deck of orbs will be randomized and presented to you in a linear order. Each turn, you shoot one of your orbs through a field of pegs. For each peg hit, the orb scores damage according to its stats, and if you hit the crit peg that damage is stepped up to the orb's crit value. At the top of your screen is a line of enemies advancing from right to left towards you. The sum of your shot is then dealt to whichever enemy you're targeting (or the closest one within line of sight to your target), and then the enemies will all move towards and/or attack you. Then it's your turn again, you use the next orb in your deck, rinse and repeat until you win or lose. You'll get gold from certain pegs and from killing enemies, and you can use that gold after each battle to restore HP and buy or upgrade orbs; the curation of the orbs in your inventory is where the game's deckbuilding components really come into play.

A typical encounter from early in a run.

With the basics laid out, we can talk about what goes wrong. First, you need to understand that there are two very different schools of thought when it comes to roguelike difficulty. The first entails making the game very difficult to complete even once, with individual runs asking a lot of the player and taking a long time to learn well enough to reasonably expect a chance at survival - for my (mildly subpar) skill level, Nuclear Throne is a good example of this. The other approach is to set the bar for completion a little lower, such that a player won't have to make too many attempts before they know enough to have a good shot at winning. In exchange, these games will allow the player to steadily unlock higher and higher difficulties with each win, turning the knobs up on that easier base gameplay. Balatro is a great example.

Peglin is very much like Balatro in this regard. Once you complete your first run, probably without more than a handful of solid attempts, you'll unlock the Cruciball. (I should mention now, this game is full of the worst, most on-the-nose puns you'll ever hear, so get used to hearing them.) The Cruciball is a 20-tier difficulty system in which each tier adds one additional handicap on top of all the previous ones. Beat the game on Cruciball level 1, you unlock level 2, and so on. I'll be upfront and say that this isn't my preferred style of game design, but I did spend a considerable amount of time with it, managing to reach Cruciball 12 during my ~40 hours of gameplay.

The Cruciball system has two substantial flaws. The first is that unlocking these difficulties on one character won't carry over to the others. Once you've played for a while, you don't really want to slog through the lower tiers again without a good reason, and the different characters aren't that different, so I felt compelled to limit my progress to the default rather than spend hours building it back up just to try with someone else. Secondly and more significantly, the difficulty curve relies on death by a thousand papercuts. Individually, none of the debuffs seem that substantial - enemies have a little more health, bombs do a little less damage, you get a little less gold, etc. But the sum result from dealing with them all at once is that after a point, maybe around level 9 or 10, the difficulty spikes quite a bit and you start losing more and more runs to bad luck and snowballing mistakes.

Part of this comes from the available strategies. At the end of the day, your core gameplay here is never going to change that much. In Hades, you might approach certain combat scenarios differently using a sword than you would a bow and arrows, or prioritize different aspects of your moveset like dash attacks. Peglin is pretty much always going to be shooting the ball towards whichever pegs are most valuable to your current build and hoping for the best. There are several main categories of builds you can work towards and none of them really change this. You can go for slime, applying different properties to some of the pegs you hit, but most of the options in this camp are unpredictable and don't give you a lot of control over what happens. There's Ballwark, which generates defense points to absorb incoming damage, but I never found a way to make it worthwhile and didn't feel like netdecking to find the combos. The one I went with pretty often is Spinfection, a poison ability that continues to inflict pain in the turns after landing a hit, and I'd usually try to pair it with piercing orbs to hit multiple foes each turn. But again, these effects really don't give you a lot of room for lateral thinking or alternate strategies. You shoot the ball and hope for a high number.

But for me, the difficulty level and tactical options are less important than the ability to play skillfully and make calculated decisions to overcome the odds. You can hone your mechanical execution in Hades and stand a chance at high heat levels, or play the odds in Balatro and go for a risky hand. But in Peglin, so much of the game is left up to chance that you can very abruptly lose a run without feeling like you made any major mistakes. Some of this is because certain encounters basically demand specific strategies, without which they become borderline impossible. Beating the Ballista boss without any piercing or overflow attacks is borderline impossible, and you might not even have access to any by the time you get there. The progression of the world map contributes to this as well. The map of each world has you traveling downward, electing to go either left or right after each room. You can see on the map which rooms are guaranteed encounters, which are guaranteed treasure or shops, and which ones are question marks which might contain any of the above or special events. But your choice of navigation is made by shooting your ball through the remaining pegs and getting it in the appropriate hole, and sometimes the layout of the pegs makes it virtually impossible to know which way you're going to go. Careful routing can be thrown off by a single bad bounce or an event space with an unpredictable board layout or even bad luck when the game decides which pegs to clear after a battle. And even if you navigate correctly, those question mark spaces have a good chance of either throwing you into a combat or even miniboss encounter you'll have no means of preparing for, or serving you up a negative event that'll eat some health or tamper with your deck in the worst ways.

The top portion of the first world's map - the dotted lines represent branching paths from each encounter.

One of the big differences between Peggle and Peglin is that you don't simply want to clear out all the pegs in a level; you actually want as many pegs around as possible to keep scoring on. To facilitate this, the board will always have a Refresh peg that spawns in a random location and stays there until hit, at which point the entire board is restored and the Refresh peg moves to a new location. Peggle would place some parameters on where its special pegs could spawn on each board, but Peglin seems to make no such exceptions; if it spawns somewhere obstructed, there are very few workarounds except to spend shot after shot chipping away at it while you soak up damage. Peglin's physics are decent, if less predictable and weighty than those of Peggle, but careful aim only helps so much when the shot you need is geometrically inaccessible. The same goes for the crit peg, which moves randomly after each shot, though at least that's easier to mitigate and not as crucial to every build, but in both cases a run of bad luck can make it pointless to continue the run even if you sqeak through.

See, your access to everything in this game is dependent on having gold. You can only heal by paying gold after battles. Orbs are primarily purchased and upgraded using gold. But even if you save up your money, you might never find anything you want to buy because access to different strategies is so unreliable. It's really the relics that dictate what's worth going for, and by the time you're past Cruciball 10 you start to question if you should even begin a run if you don't have a preferred relic in your starting options. Bad encounters mean you need to spend gold healing, which means you have less gold to buy and improve your orbs. This could lead you to think you should settle for less than ideal orb purchases to get by, but one of the biggest newb traps in the game is how difficult it is to selectively remove anything from the deck - expensive once-per-shop-space purchases and a scant few random events are the only controlled methods. Exercising tight control of what goes into your deck is the ticket to higher level wins, which makes the early game even more important to manage your finances and keep your health up. In fewer words, the game gradually devolves into "bad start -> restart -> repeat" until you get something going, at which point you hope you don't draw a tough battle... or get funneled into a more difficult path by bad post-battle RNG... or get heavily disruptive random events that skewer your strategy.

I'll also mention here that (as of the time of writing) the game is severely lacking in the level of polish I expect from a $20 indie title. The fast forward options are a little janky and, while necessary to remove some of the tedium, make the action feel quite a bit less satisfying. More than once I've had crit or refresh pegs fail to spawn, costing me the run, when none of my relics should have interfered with it. Turning the volume all the way down leaves the game slightly audible, and I had to mute the program in Windows to get it truly silent. Controls can't be rebound. Tapping the space bar will shoot even when you're viewing your map or inventory. I've had the game chug during busy turns, I've seen it hang after every shot for several additional seconds. Most of the time it's fine, sans a couple of annoyances, but at this price point it should have a much more refined user experience.

And with all that being said, I can't say the game is unfun. I had a really good time with it at first. The first time I found a broken combination and aced the final boss was great fun and some of the relics promote interesting and risky types of play that I wish were more viable. You can probably get a good 20 hours out of this before you get to the point of frustration - more if you level up the other characters - and with so few options in this genre, it's worth a try for diehard fans. But once you've seen most of the content, tried out a few different builds, notched a few victories, it simply doesn't have the depth to keep pushing through runs that die on the vine for reasons you couldn't control.

Recommended If You: Are desperate for more Peggle-like gameplay; want a game marginally more engaging than Roundguard; enjoy extremely forced puns.

The Admin Tower / CalRef Development Journal 40:...

Last post by Luca - May 24, 2024, 02:48:42 PM

CalRef VII
What? We're Still Doing These?

Evidently!

What's Up With This Sick Theme?

You likely noticed that there's a hot new theme for the forum that dropped around the 3^rd of April. This theme is called Silvehn, it's named after Emily's Elven nation theme, and took approximately six eye-bleeding days working basically non-stop. I've kinda found that I've developed this frustration with everything on the internet looking generic and corporate. So, going forward, I'd like to really bring back colour and return to an internet era where every website actually looked different from every other website.

Read/unread icons are the Refugia Culture department icon, but they're coloured in unique ways depending on what hasn't been seen. The redirect icon is also available as a Dot rotato icon, born out of this [wallpaper] I recently made up in inkscape (which is actually a literal joy to work with). The board logo is a slightly saturated version of the same style we had in Endar, and the post editor is made up of styles and icons of that era. The background is not mine, though it is licensed, and about everything else is made from scratch. This theme renovation improvement also allows for more permissive avatars, as well as threads you've posted in being easier to spot.

Osmium? A New Server??

Yes, me, this is also true, we now have a new Debian 12 server called Osmium -- a name picked by poll popularity. Every now and then I reach a point where I feel like I can't get a version of something that I want, usually Python, and it boils down to the version of Debian. There's also bountiful things that accompany such upgrades, such as added security, whatever that is. Personally I just let Amazon and ByteDance pound the server like a thirteenth century French brothel, and assume everyone else does too.

Amazingly, this sort of subconscious awareness that the time had come to renovate the server is well-sourced. Apparently, the Refuge has almost always swapped to a new VPS every three years since forever. So I suppose I am just following a long tradition under the guise of free will and choice. Hydrogen was officiated, to my recollection, in December of 2021, so we're a little early, but that's alright. Now we have new and nifty things like Python 3.11 and PHP 8.3.

PHP 8.3 is great*, but also means that the wiki died. So part of this upgrade involved spending a significant amount of time manually upgrading the wiki, its mods, and its database, incrementally, from 1.31 to the latest long-term support version 1.39 and its six additional patches. I believed, however, that flashy version numbers going up wouldn't get the blood pumping, so I added and briefly spent some time modifying a dark mode theme. Being a staunch traditionalist, I have not made it the default theme, but it is available for you to use at this very microsecond by visiting your [preferences] and selecting DarkVector.

* it's still PHP

More! Give Us Nummy Nummy New Things!

No.

But! I'm excited to give you old things. The deal with programming is that it's a never-ending learning process. Every time you do something, you learn how to do it better again by making it. Downside is that you already did it, so you can either waste time doing it again or move on to something else. Oftentimes I'm more than content to do the latter, but recently I decided to take some actual programming classes to shore any gaps in my knowledge that came from the haphazard way I figured things out on my own, without formal training.

The vast majority of content was material I already knew, but what I didn't turned out to be very helpful. I think [Eyebeast] benefited from this a bit in terms of accessibility improvements and the lord, our God, Google's blessed search rating. So, now that's been done up, visit it today! Or as often as you normally do, and note that it is marginally better than it was this time three months ago.

One other notable update to share is that I've followed in the footsteps of Refuge admins' passed and put up the source code on Github for others to study and learn from, or politely suggest improvements. It is released under the 'if you smelt it you must dealt it license'. Visit and star the [repository] today, or whatever people on Github do.

But I Said Give Us Nummy Nummy New Things!

No.

Also! You might think that my next stop on this journey would be to, then, ground-up improve Tart.CalRef, and you would be correct. But I also think that I'm marginally better at figuring things out with code than I used to be, so I wanted to do something unusual while improving it. In this, I decided to recode Tart.CalRef in PHP. Mostly to prove to myself that I could learn a language that I have never worked in before and spit out something modest in it without any framework.

I also just thought that PHP would be more suitable for handling Tart than python with flask and, now after having done it, feel like that was a pretty bang-on assessment. I'm not a PHPist, so probably professional PHP developers can find a dozen things to poke holes at, but for my purposes I think it's put together relatively well. More importantly, Tart is now faster, scores 100 on lighthouse ratings in every category, and has basically zero dependencies.

I have also made its code available through a public Github [repository] so that you can look on it with awe and terror, and also to get an idea of how you can parse a data dump with PHP. It is released under the do whatever as long as you keep the copyright license.

Shall There Be Nummy Nummy New Things in The Future?

Not really. Maybe. It's classified.

Report all errors to the local authority.

General Discussion / Re: The CalRef Review Bunker

Last post by Zukchiva - April 25, 2024, 11:04:18 PM

So I got a Crunchyroll premium free trial for 2 weeks just to watch Frieren: Beyond Journey's End. Then I watched 6 other anime. And I thought I might as well write short reviews on the 7 anime and then rank them at the end as my until-2-AM activity for today! I'll review them in order of how I watched them and then rank them at the end. ^-^

I'll try to avoid major spoilers, but if you're someone who really likes watching things without *any* spoilers, then I'll put a tldr; at the top and you should not read the rest of that anime's review.

Hereeee we gooooo...

1. Frieren: Beyond Journey's End

Frieren: Beyond Journey's End is an anime about a nigh-immortal elf who is currently on an adventure... after having been on a much bigger adventure 50+ years ago wherein she and her then-comrades defeated the overpowering Demon King and saved the world. The thing that's so cool about this anime is how it treats that first journey in comparison to the present. In most books or series, you never really consider just how the previous adventures a protagonist embarked on has changed them. And on the surface level, this makes sense as most of us don't spend every minute of our day considering our past. Yet, it's true that oftentimes many key points happen in our lives that change our very character and how we do things.

This is something Frieren captures quite beautifully. Whenever there is a moment in the present that can match well with a point of growth Frieren experienced on her journey to defeat the Demon King, the anime is sure to juxtapose them. It allows you to see how Frieren has changed - and how she has not - as a result of a journey that formed a milestone event in her life. The anime just makes you think about how life can be viewed as a small collection of experiences, each leaving its mark on us.

Beyond that, Frieren also has a major focus on remembrance and legacy - how it feels to seek it and how it can look like for both heroes and regular people as well. Maybe it's just because the idea of recording things interests me, but nonetheless I liked that the anime touched on this theme. Although it can be a bit on the nose sometimes and feels a bit beaten in - your mileage may vary on how much you like that.

You tend to see statues a lot, which plays into the remembrance theme a bit. (source)

The story of the anime is also pretty great, although probably not the most well developed one in my opinion, compared to other anime on this list, since it follows a more quest-by-quest kinda storyline which can make it slightly disjointed. The worldbuilding itself is pretty alright as well, but I think one thing the anime does well is its magic system. While the magic system itself isn't quite explored in depth, I do like how it is given the aura of being pretty much a type of science - grounded in experimentation and empiricism - and how the anime sometimes uses that as a discussion point to explore the world in a few combat moments. Speaking of the combat itself, IMO Frieren's is really, really excellent and fun combat. It's basically really satisfying to see good imagination matched with big magic kamahema blasts aimed with the precision of a needle, xD.

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Overall, while the story and worldbuilding are great, they're probably not the best or most strongly developed relative to other anime of Frieren's tier. However, the story and worldbuilding are strong enough to support the main draw of Frieren, which is the deeper reflection on remembrance and life experience. Frieren is ultimately a bit more of a character-driven anime than a story one, but the story is still enough to keep the plot moving forward.

It is ultimately probably one of the most favorite things I've watched in recent times, maybe even all time, because of that strong reflectiveness and emotiveness. I heavily recommend it to anyone who likes more sentimental/reflective anime but still wants to see fantasy combat in action. I'd rate it a 10/10 overall - it's super, super great and I'm in love with it.

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2. Solo Leveling

Solo Leveling is about an individual named Sung Jinwoo. In his world, humanity has to deal with monsters in dungeons - but if the dungeons aren't cleared soon enough, the monsters spew into the real world through portals. Humans who are "awakened" get abilities of varying degrees that make them hunters - though their abilities remain static. Sung is the lowest rank of hunter - class E - but somehow gets the power to start leveling up his abilities. The anime goes on from there to explore his exploits as being such a unique hunter.

Solo Leveling's themes focus primarily on not giving up and surpassing one's own limits. Certainly not a bad theme at all, of course, although it didn't quite stir me up as much as Frieren's did since it's a pretty common theme to see in different works. Don't have much more to say on that, heh.

As far as storytelling goes, I do think Solo Leveling's story paces a bit faster than Frieren's, which is pretty nice. The story itself also seems to be building up to a major plot reveal, which I think will definitely shake things up in later seasons (it's pretty clear what it's going towards, but it hasn't been explicitly revealed yet in season 2). That being said, while the story is a bit more better paced than Frieren's, it's also a bit less developed - most of the episodes kinda just revolve around Sung leveling up his abilities. While some specific episodes indeed have strong emotional moments, it seemed the story took a backseat to watching Sung level himself up. Which is fine I guess, although it began being a bit tiring after a few episodes The worldbuilding itself is pretty decent, though. It's interesting to see how humanity in Sung's world basically just normalized monsters appearing through portals, and how monopolies formed to take advantage of the need for hunters. It's how I imagine humanity would react in real life to such an occurrence, so that helped a bit with immersion.

The animation itself was also really good, in my opinion, although the stylistic choice to make everyone have triangle chins is not my personal aesthetic. In any case, the combat was great alongside the regular scenes. My only grip with the anime is that one or two episodes after he gets his level up powers, Sung becomes a shredded muscular man (how he does so will make sense if you watch the anime). Which isn't a major blow but kinda detracts from the anime's theme of determination, I think? If your entire conflict is that this hunter is too weak, then making him at least look really strong after a relatively short time frame kinda nullifies that theme a bit.

Overall, Solo Leveling is a pretty solid anime. It has a clear story with a clear build-up in overall plot, although the more specific between-episodes plot isn't as developed. The worldbuilding and animation are pretty nice though, and I think the theme is quite appreciable. I'd rate this anime a solid 6.5/10.

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3. Vinland Saga

"I have no enemies." - meme

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Vinland Saga is basically about the life of a young viking named Thorfinn, son of Thors. Thorfinn essentially becomes a viking warrior during the start of the 1000s, whereupon he becomes a seasoned child soldier - capable of feats and atrocities his fellow soldiers can only hope to appreciate. But later on in his life, in the second season when he is no longer such a warrior, Thorfinn is forced to reckon with his violent past - and wonder at what his future holds for him.

The main theme for Vinland Saga is pretty clear - how to atone for the wrongs you did in your past and how you can step forward from them. Thorfinn is absolutely ravaged by his past, and he's forced to find a way to work through his evil deeds for a better future. Another theme Saga has is also on the idea of revenge and hatred. Thorfinn spends the first season being the embodiment of hatred against another character, but when that character ceases to be relevant in the second season, Thorfinn needs to find a way to deal with the emptiness his years-long hatred formerly filled within him.

Thorfinn was an exceptional warrior, ngl. (source)

I don't think I'm really doing the themes of Saga any justice - it's just kinda something you have to watch to feel. Nonetheless, the anime was truly an anime about a human life - how a person can change through the years, how life has its really bad and sad moments alongside the happy ones, how life can often be disappointing or rewarding on a dime. Like Frieren, it's an anime focused on character development (although Thorfinn's development is much more radical) and remembering, although in this case it's from the eyes of a redeemed savage warrior than a renowned near-mythical hero. The anime being set in historical times with no fantasy elements also makes it a bit more real. You kinda remember that, more likely than not, the anime could very well be a representation of the lives people lived in that timeframe and area. Hell, it's more likely than not that someone or a couple of people of that time in real life lived lives similar to Thorfinn. In short, the anime gives you a glimpse into a fictional life in a very real-seeming world that is loosely based on the real world.

Speaking of worldbuilding, Vinland Saga's is pretty solid. Which isn't really surprising, given that it's mostly building off a general framework made from IRL's history. But even beyond that, the anime gives a lot of reasoning for why certain people took certain actions. Like why Thorfinn's father ended up living where he did for the remainder of his life, for example. The anime makes it very clear the motivations of its characters, but also the effects of characters' actions on each other. Everything is well supported by the world being built. The story itself was also really decent as well, which makes sense since the story in this case is one continuous stretch of someone's life, albeit with some large skips here or there. But the story can also drag on for some periods of time in the first season, and it takes a much slower pace/tone in the second season as Thorfinn becomes more reflective and strays from war - to the point where it can be boring at times, and an episode can seem like nothing seemed to happen if you don't focus on how the characters change. But the general plot is solid nonetheless and makes sense in how it occurs.

It does have some comedy as well! Heh. (source)

The animation itself is also pretty solid in the first season, though it does pick up a little bit in the second season. It isn't as drastic as say, first season AoT compared to the last, but you can see some better detailing. Overall, I think both studios did really well with the season each was given, though I can't help but wonder how MAPPA would've handled the first season.

In any case, Vinland Saga is simply an amazing anime. While it can be a bit long and slow at parts, just being able to see the awesome character development in Thorfinn alongside all the interpersonal relationships that form between the relatively larger cast of characters is amazing. It really feels like watching a serialized account of an actual human life - one that pays homage to that person's struggles and their victories as well. It's a 10/10 anime for me, and I'd recommend anyone feeling bored to give it a try.

4. Goblin Slayer

Goblin Slayer is an anime about a notable adventurer called Goblin Slayer. Who just... slays goblins. And that's it. Though of course, this solo adventurer soon forms a party with a young Priestess (who he saves in the first episode), an elf, a lizard person, and a dwarf. The party goes on various quests as time passes, going on to do various impressive feats and saving many people.

Scary... (source)

In terms of theme, Goblin Slayer focuses a bit more on the idea of self-confidence and sacrifice. It explores self-confidence by exploring the character development of the Priestess, who goes from being a meek and timid adventurer into someone who can stand on her own two feet and save others in dangerous situations. But the anime also focuses often on the idea of having *too much* self-confidence, as it shows with rookie adventurers dying violent deaths due to their hubris in challenging goblins when they weren't yet ready to do so.

The idea of sacrifice is also often discussed in Goblin Slayer through the Slayer's duties. While other adventurers can kill a variety of beasts, travel, and make a name for themselves, Goblin Slayer is forced to kill goblins due to his personal code of killing all goblins once someone sacrificed their life for him from the goblins. Goblin Slayer himself can never meet the dream of being a big adventurer, but by killing goblins, he allows other adventurers (and non-adventurers who'd otherwise be killed by goblins) to live out their own dreams.

The themes of the anime are nice, solid ones that together make the anime a good emotional piece. However, the story itself isn't all that great - seeing as there isn't really an overall goal for the Slayer beyond just killing goblins. While all the major characters, including the Slayer, do change, there isn't a cohesive story arc supporting such development - mostly a few episode-long arcs that are mostly unrelated to each other (beyond new character relationships forming of course).

The worldbuilding, however, is excellent. The operation of goblin society is really interesting, albeit simplistic and brutalistic. But what's the best about the anime's worldbuilding is how it worldbuilds adventuring. From seeing how the adventurer's guild operates to the bulletin board to even how gathering equipment works, the anime works really hard to develop a cohesive culture of adventuring. The anime's magic is also super interesting as well, being well fitted to different styles based on people's cultures. For example, priests and priestesses use godly magic with spells like "Purify" or "Holy Light", while the dwarf spellcaster spits rocks at high speeds and the lizard man can summon bone warriors. Every magic system feels specialized to a specific culture or practice, which is really interesting to see as that's probably how it'd work in real life as well.

One of the Priestesses spells, Protection. (source)

The animation itself is also really good, although I personally think it picked up in the second season. Combat is pretty amazing, especially. However, this anime really, really likes gore and other slightly NSFW stuff - the first episode is the worst, though elements of that NSFW stuff does exist beyond the first episode. But the gore is there the entire time and can be extreme. This anime also plays heavily into fan service and the "harem" trope, which are both major downer points to me - I'm not a fan of fan service, and in real life most people don't have people falling for them like a magnet. So the focus on gore and innuendo can be a bit much.

Overall, Goblin Slayer is a pretty neat anime. It has great characters with interesting interpersonal relationships, awesome animation, and great worldbuilding. However, it's pretty stark lack of an overall plot line alongside its gore/slight-NSFW/fan-service/harem-trope throws me off a lot, and kinda makes the anime drag on a bit. It is definitely an anime I'd watch a third season for still, but that's despite a lot of stuff in it. For that, it gets a 7/10.

Me @ some of this anime's choices. (source)

5. Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood

Fullmetal Alchemist Brotherhood (or as I'll abbreviate it, FAB) is an anime about two brothers - Edward and Alphonse Elric - who live in a 1900s fictional world built on alchemy. (Alchemy is basically just a magic system made to be a very hyper-scientific looking one.) The brothers are on a journey to restore Alphonse's body - which he lost when the pair failed to perform the sole forbidden "transmutation" in alchemy. But needless to say, their inquiries into returning their bodies to normal lands them in a central conspiracy involving their entire nation.

FAB's themes focus mostly on the importance of friendship. The entire anime tends to explore the meaning of friends, and it is often only with the support of friends that the Elric brothers and their supporting cast often end up succeeding. FAB does well to hit upon the practical and emotional support friends can give to each other - and how important they are in human lives. It also deals well with the loss of those friends - and how people can move on from such important deaths, either focusing on vengeance or moving on. The anime also explores redemption and change - seeing how select characters can change after living lives of doing evil, to set things right even if there is no true way to account for all the things they've done. Its themes are pretty nice and ultimately even share some similarities with the Vinland Saga.

The importance of ✨friendship ✨(source)

In terms of story, FAB is pretty amazing and probably has the best story on this list. Every episode or two had me on the edge of my seat, and every single sub-plot tied in extremely well with the overall plot. Some of the final episodes were probably not the most well explained in terms of "how is the villain managing to carry out this massive plan of his" - but overall, the build up and slow release of knowledge by FAB was extremely well done. The characters' relationships with each other are also beyond amazing - I felt strongly connected to these characters and their losses. Hell, there were a few times I actually nearly cried - I think the only anime on this list I did that for. While many of the characters didn't see that much personality development in the present wherein most of the anime occurs (though some characters did develop since the flashbacks of the more distant past), the growth of their relationships and abilities much made up for it.

The worldbuilding itself is also really, really well done for most parts of the anime. The differences in alchemy between societies is really interesting to see, alongside listening to the foreign political government nearby Amestris (where the anime occurs) and seeing how people from outside Amestris fight. It's also nice to see the smaller details included about automail (steel robot limbs for amputees) - such as how nerves are connected and that it causes pain to connect them. There's a lot of other small details scattered in the anime, too. The world is pretty fully developed, which is nice.

The animation itself is also pretty decent, though it certainly gets a massive boost halfway into the season. The combat animations are also not that bad, although magic/alchemy combat doesn't really compare much to Frieren's until FAB reaches its last 20 episodes. The only thing that made me a bit uncomfortable about FAB is that Amestris seems to be modeled off of Nazi Germany The anime does not glorify genocide in any way though, and the genocide that does occur in the anime is used as a way for characters to reflect on their evil deeds and how Amestris needs to change. So I guess it's alright, although even with that, Amestris being modeled off of Nazi Germany so blatantly still rubs me the wrong way.

Looks super cool, right?! (source)

Overall, FAB is a great anime with great story, great characters, great worldbuilding, great animation - basically great anime overall. It certainly gets a 10/10 from me If anyone wants something to watch when bored - assuming you haven't watched this anime yet.

6. Spy Family

So technically I didn't really start Spy Family during the free trial, but I did finish season 1 and complete Season 2 - so I might as well include it!

Spy Family is about a "fake" family formed by superstar spy Loid Forger, or Twilight, in Operation Stryx - which aims to maintain the fragile peace between 2 wartorn countries. Loid's wife is Yor Forger, an assassin who works for the vigilante justice group, Garden. And their child is Anya Forger, an orphan who was picked by Loid for the mission and is a telepath. The most interesting part of the anime is that none of them know about each other's unique traits - to each other, they're just an everyday normal family. The anime follows this family's hijinks as they go through life, with Loid trying to use Anya to further his mission in the process.

While I'm not sure it's right to say Spy Family has any strong themes, it does focus a lot on the emotional bonds the Forgers form over time - which makes it a pretty emotional anime that I nearly cried at a few times ;w;. It's super cool to watch the family's dynamics evolve from stilted strangers to something more and more representing a real, close family that cares for each other.

In terms of story, while the anime does have a very clear overall plot, you could go multiple episodes with the overall plot not really mattering much to the story. Spy Family is more broken into different small arcs and a lot of one-off episodes, which is kinda like Goblin Slayer, though the overall plot does get a mention in some of these deviating episodes. That being said, the characters in Spy Family are all very developed - especially the main trio, each with their own unique personality and view of the family. Their emotional bonds feel quite real, which make the emotional moments of the anime super, super wholesome and deep and altogether amazing. It's also funny to watch how the dynamics between different characters develop, like how Loid quickly becomes exasperated with Anya or Anya gets terrified of her mother's lack of self control when it comes to her superhuman strength. The anime also has a lot of comedic moments as well, which get bolstered by us being able to see Anya's readings of other people's minds pretty often and her shocked reactions to the thoughts of others.

To be fair, I'd be shocked too (source)

The worldbuilding of Spy Family is also really well done. The nation the Forgers reside in, Ostania, is shown in well developed fragments as time goes on. An example of that is the State Service, which serves as the secret police of Ostania and are often referenced as people who Loid needs to avoid in his spy work. In the second season, an episode also sees a discussion of the war between Ostania and Westalis (the country Loid is originally from) - and how the horrible effects of that war now have committed much of Westalis's spy agencies to maintain the fragile peace. The worldbuilding isn't wholly expansive though, and mostly comes from Loid's sections when he's busy doing spy work and monologuing to himself.

In terms of animation, Spy Family is not lacking at all in that department either. The combat scenes are pretty spectacular to watch, and it's also funny seeing a lot of Anya's scenes, which often turn bright and glowy or dark and moody depending on how she's feeling. The animation tends to do the best in focusing on the shocked comedic reactions of all the characters whenever something happens to them - like Anya running off or Yor kicking a dodgeball hard enough to decapitate multiple trees.

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Overall, Spy Family is a pretty awesome anime. While it can sometimes feel a bit too disjointed, the story certainly exists - but the biggest draw is just seeing all the fun gimmicks the Forger family gets up to. It was an adorable and sweet anime to watch, and I can't wait to watch the third season one day. Thus, this awesome anime also gets a 10/10.

7. Bocchi the Rock!

Bocchi the Rock! is about a high school girl named Hitori Gotōh, who has severe social anxiety. Hitori gains the goal of being a rock star and making friends - both which occurs when she joins with a new upcoming band called Kessoku Band. The anime then explores the band's struggles as it tries to establish itself and holds its first three concerts - also exploring Hitori's growth in the process as she overcomes her anxiety.

Bocchi is about a lot of different themes, but the easiest one to touch on is friendship, of course. A lot of the time, Hitori tends to believe her new friends, her bandmates, will disparage her and bring her down. But most of the time her friends are quite supportive and helpful to Hitori in ways that Hitori doesn't even know - giving her space to grow, allowing her to step back from stimulation when needed, and celebrating her accomplishments. The anime makes a pretty big point that good friends are those who have your back through thick and thin. But the theme that's more important and probably resonates a lot more is that of change. Hitori is a person who clearly struggles to get over her anxiety, often only 'cuz her friends force her to do so. But the thing is that she *is* getting over it - and it wasn't overnight either, seeing as she practiced guitar for three years in the hopes of making friends. In a world full of lonely people, it's awesome to see an example, even if fictional, of someone working to strip their loneliness as a result of their own efforts - of course, luck plays a role in it, but nonetheless to see such effort is also nice. I feel like the anime could've very easily slid into a role wherein it just joked about Hitori's social anxiety but never fixed it; instead, it uses Hitori as a way to show that change is possible and that, through work and luck, loneliness is never permanent.

Social confidence! Hell yeah!! (source)

In terms of story, Bocchi has a pretty nicely paced story. There is very much an overall plot, although it does get dropped in two or three filler episodes - but the general goal of the band to establish and make a name for itself is always in mind. The worldbuilding in Bocchi, however, isn't really that exemplary although it isn't too bad either - which makes sense since this anime isn't really about the world, but about the life of one girl. It's also based on real life, so the need for worldbuilding really isn't that important. As for characters, Bocchi's characters are pretty amazing - every character has their own unique trait that makes them stand out from the others, even a lot of the major supporting cast. The band in particular tends to shine with the 4 competing yet very much unique personalities making for a cool friend group to watch.

One thing that is absolutely amazing about Bocchi, though, is the animation. The anime does mostly seem to use traditional anime styling, but every detail is well animated and well focused on. There was even a point where I was just watching the characters' hair bob up and down and wondering if hair looks like that in other anime as well, xD. Another unique thing about Bocchi is that it has no fear of being quirky and funny when it wants to - and many funny moments are punctuated by 5-10 second breaks into other art styles - like 3D modeling for example. It's probably one of the best animated shows I've ever seen hands down in my life so far, and its usage of non-anime style at select points also makes it extremely unique. The animation is actually what caught my eye in the first place!

The gif in this meme is from a sped-up scene in the actual anime! (source)

Bocchi the Rock is ultimately an awesomely animated anime with awesome interpersonal relationships and a great story. It was also probably the anime that I personally resonated the most with, seeing as I'm a more functional copy of Bocchi. I'd really recommend this anime to anyone who likes slice of life - 10/10 rating.

Final Ranking

Yuhhhh

1. Frieren: Beyond Journey's End / Bocchi The Rock!

Maybe I just really like more sentimental/reflective anime, but these two anime had pretty neato overall stories, awesome animations, and most importantly - really impactful themes that are important to me for some reason. Some of the best stuff I've ever watched to date, and I hope both get many more seasons to come!

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2. Spy Family

Spy Family is just a fantastic anime that is super funny to watch, and the Forger's antics made me laugh a bit and also feel like nearly crying at certain points as well.

3. Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood / Vinland Saga

These two animes, unlike the previous two, kinda had a bit more serious tone throughout (although FAB certainly does have quite a bit comedic value). Both animes have heavy-hitting stories in their own way, and Vinland in particular makes you think a lot about what it means to get angry at people and/or hate them. Honestly, I could see them being ranked next to Spy Family as well - it's either or for me, so I decided to just make this list slightly longer :3

4. Goblin Slayer

Goblin Slayer is a pretty neat and fun anime to watch, and it does have its deeper moments. But a lot of the stuff it has like fan service and harem tropes kinda put it a bit lower compared to the other anime on this list. The cohesive lack of story also doesn't really help all too much.

5. Solo Leveling

Solo Leveling is also a great anime, but out of all the anime in this list it had the least amount of impact to me. It was kinda just like watching a movie that I was interested in but would probably forget in a few months. It's a good anime and many people clearly like it a lot more than I do... just not my thing, I guess.

And that's my review! Thanks for taking a peek at this I guess, though I doubt anyone will read it xD. It's... not well written, admittedly :3. And since this is like 4k words, I am not reading this over a second or third time. =w=

Anyways, have a nice day!

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