Ergonomics Design For Parkinson'S Patients - Canadian Symposium: Fill & Download for Free

It literally CANNOT be the “worst tank of all time.” This is a totally subjective assessment, is an OPINION, and has very little basis in fact. The Valiant never passed the prototype stage. There was literally only ONE ever built.Perhaps the Valiant COULD be “POTENTIALLY the worst tank DESIGN/PROTOTYPE ever” but since it was never fielded it can’t actually be considered the “worst tank of all time.” That “honor” would have to go to a tank that actually performed its intended job and failed miserably at it. Rather than a prototype vehicle that was never actually fielded.The A13 Covenanter is a much “better” candidate since it was built and fielded in the thousands…and NOT ONE was sent to the actual battle front since they were so bad/dangerous to their own crews even during training. The TC’s hatch would decapitate the vehicle commander upon a sudden stop. Pretty sure a tank built in the thousands that would kill its own crew members without ever seeing actual combat counts as worse than a vehicle that was just hard to steer and never killed anyone. But that is just MY OPINION as an experienced tanker.However, having said all that, there are numerous reasons that the Valiant never made it past the single prototype stage:Poor ergonomicsExcessive effort on the part of the driver to operate ANYTHING related to moving, stopping, or steering the tankWeak, easily broken suspensionWeak, severely under-powered engine and transmissionLow power to weight ratioExceptionally low top speed (not necessarily a bad thing since it was intended to be an infantry support tank).Weak, cast, turret armorEven weaker mantle/mantlet armorBroke down constantly even after light, non-aggressive, slow, leisurely on-road drivingPoor (low) ground clearanceOther tanks already fielded were already better in all ways than the ValiantPrototype was finished until, and only started testing, in 1945. The Allies were already pushing towards Berlin by that pointAll the previous reasons combined to result in the officer overseeing the project to recommend its total closure

First, it depends on the tone of your project. But whether it be as game designer, game master, writer, or filmmaker the process will be the same.To give you an idea of tone Ghostbusters (1984) is a comedy-action. The comedy takes precedence.Image: Ghostbusters (1984)Whereas It (2017) and It Chapter 2 (2019) are drama-horror stories. With a bit of action. Incidentally, It is interesting because It touches on the coming-of-age story—but with an eldritch abomination.Image: It Chapter 2 (2019)Both of these films are recommended. Also, do not overlook a story or a film because it is old. Stories are the same in structure since man began telling stories. This is why we still see mythological tales made into movies and books. They are great adventures. Sometimes they are modernized (this is called a setting update in the industry) but in the hands of the good storyteller they are worth your time.What you have with Lovecraftian or Cosmic Horror is a template or model of a godlike alien monster (known as eldritch abominations) to build from. Both Lovecraftian and Cosmic Horror are interchangeable for our purposes so stay on your toes I may switch between them for the sake of variety.Image: Rifts role-playing game (1990) Kevin Siembieda. Artist: Keith ParkinsonIf you were designing a car you would think in terms of power plant. exterior design, wheels, ergonomics, fuel efficiency, marketing demographics and the like. Comparably speaking, you do the same things with your individual monsters as well and also as a pantheon. The other thing to thing about is not the car but the design and manufacturing process. Where will it be made? How much money will it cost to produce? What are the consumer price points? How many do we make?Image: Brainiac by Phil ChoSo in that respect the concepts of design are similar. And what I am getting at with this is there is the monster itself and there is the story. So as a tool/literary device how does the monster fit into your world. You want to ask questions about how and where it fits into your story and your world. And as a writer-creator what are your intentions. Comedy. True Cosmicism, that is, the we are all doomed tragic ending. Sword and sorcery (Conan fits into the Cosmic Horror world), espionage, The Laundry Files (a good dose of comedy and horror).So to recap, the ideas to consider are:The monster and all the cool things that entails.Where and how it fits into the story.Image: Rifts role-playing game (1990) Kevin Siembieda. Artist: Keith ParkinsonIt’s a good idea to plan this out. Often, eldritch abominations lurk in the background creating an ominous, oppressive and nigh hopeless atmosphere. They are to far to reach and can only be hinted at. Distant. Powerful. Mysterious.In creating god-monsters and pantheons there are two ways to go about this: Piecemeal and the whole enchilada.Let take the piecemeal approach and focus on one. Then, later, we can build more monsters. To make the whole enchilada would be a massive undertaking and we just want to demonstrate some design ideas.Image: Tsathoggua. Artist unknown.We will touch on a pantheon later. Pantheons usually feature the same types of gods. For example, there’s a god of writing, there’s a god of war, there’s a god love. With eldritch abominations you don’t want to do that. You want to make the monster really crazy and abstract. Not good. Not evil. Maybe sinister. Or even random.Take a look at what has gone before.So…What are eldritch abominations?OK. What do I mean by eldritch abomination. These are monster-gods from space that have been found on earth and in other dimensions. They are very powerful. They live for aeons and aeons (that means a long, long time). They usually have a lot of tentacles and eyes—but not always. And they have psychic or magical powers. They are often worshiped by evil and diabolical humans who are misguided enough to think that they will be granted power by the eldritch abomination. Also, there’s a good amount of mystery associated with these things. Like the mystery of space what we don’t know is much more than what we know.Image: Lankhmar-savage foes of Lankhmar by Rilez75 featuring Fafhrd and the Gray MouserThat’s the first step. Map out the concept and what it looks like. Fortunately, there are already several established eldritch abominations and pantheons that you can find.It’s important to look at these in some depth as they will give you ideas for your own creations. This is something that you can do in five minutes. It won’t take long to create a basic concept. But it is worth your while to explore them more in depth.Image: The Dark Man (Nyarlathotep) by Jens HeimdahlRealize that an eldritch abomination does not think in human terms. They may or may not have a concept of good or evil, light and darkness. If they destroy a planet or a species it may be no big deal to them. Another interesting thought experiment is that they may not have concepts such as freedom or privacy, the collective or the individual. They may not value life as humans are taught to do because they are not even alive in the biological sense. But they might have a sense of humor. The Japanese have a different approach to eldritch abominations with some being of the cute and fluffy sort. There are too many Cosmic Horror stories in Hentai and anime to list but if you like that I don’t have to tell you where to look. You already know.Image: Cthulhu sculpture by Stephen Hickman.What all of them are is powerful. And that’s important. In literature and in general if your villain is not more powerful than the heroes then there is not much of a story or a conflict.Let’s review:They are very old.They are from space or another dimension.They are very powerful.They don’t think like people.They often have magic or psychic powers.They aren’t interested too much in communicating or working with the human race.They are often worshipped by humans in some sort of death cult.Building a pantheon may involve creating a family of eldritch abominations but nothing says they have to be related. They could be warring clans. Or like amoeba one grows from the other but maybe it has a different agenda.While creating let me say you are free to do whatever you want. You don’t have to listen to any of the advice. Or you can pick and choose from what you’ve seen in other stories. It’s your creations. Dark as it may be.Image: Dark young of Shub-Niggurath. Artist uncredited.But if you are interested, it really helps to see what has gone before. There is a decent sized body of work featuring eldritch abominations. The stories are quite good. And they will show you exemplars of not only alien gods but also of alien worlds. This of course was made popular by the writer H.P. Lovecraft but it starts before him and continues on into the now. With authors who have contributed to the expanded universe. Call it fan fiction if you want but the idea is that you have some readily workable concepts to use.Image: Nyaruko. The anime/manga version of Nyarlathotep from Nyaruko: Crawling with Love (2009 - 2014)Keep in mind also that pantheons in mythology evolved over a great many years. To bring across this idea in your works it doesn’t hurt to take a look at some actual pantheons. The Greek pantheon is a good place to start and has been integrated and referenced by many writers. As well, Sumerian and other pantheons have been combined with fictional Cosmic Horror ones (reference Ghostbusters above).Image: Ithaqua. Artist unknown.There is no canon. If you want to change a preexisting eldritch abomination you can! Many are in public domain. Just make it a good story.Example of an eldritch abomination:Gozer the GozerianIt is an ancient, ultra-powerful, malignant entity from another dimension who was summoned to New York City to destroy the world. Gozer was originally worshiped as a god by the Hittites, Mesopotamians, and the Sumerians around 6000 BC. Gozer is genderless (though it first appears as a female in the movie). It was worshiped by the powerful Cult of Gozer. Gozer has two trusted minions – themselves worshiped as demi-gods – that are harbingers of destruction and primary agents for its arrival: Vinz Clortho, The Keymaster and Zuul, The Gatekeeper. Gozer has visited our world twice, in 1984 and 1991, both times assuming the form of the Stay Puft Marshmallow Man. The Ghostbusters were able to thwart its efforts both times.Why was Gozer defeated relatively easily? Because the story was a comedy.