Profile for Spidweb
| Field | Value |
|---|---|
| Displayed name | Spidweb |
| Member number | 1 |
| Title | Board Administrator |
| Postcount | 960 |
| Homepage | http://www.spiderwebsoftware.com |
| Registered | Tuesday, September 18 2001 07:00 |
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| Author | Recent posts |
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| Riddle Me This, Batman! in General | |
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written Tuesday, August 15 2006 19:11
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No matter what rule you come up with for how many times you flip the coin, it'll still be 50/50. And, as before, if you don't believe me, try it yourself. Coin, paper, pencil, and your new rule. Try it out for a while, write B for boy and G for girl, look at your paper, and if you carry it out for long enough, you'll see yourself floating pretty close to 50/50. (Ideally, you'd do this with a computer program and have it run for a few hundred thousand families.) - Jeff Vogel -------------------- Official Board Admin spidweb@spiderwebsoftware.com Posts: 960 | Registered: Tuesday, September 18 2001 07:00 |
| Brief Geneforge 4 Update in Geneforge 4: Rebellion | |
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written Tuesday, August 15 2006 13:23
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There are 5 classes, each emphasizing different orders of skills. Four are human. To anicipate a question, I didn't put in the sixth for two reasons. One, I didn't think that skill set worked well. Two, didn't have time to make a sixth PC graphic. - Jeff Vogel -------------------- Official Board Admin spidweb@spiderwebsoftware.com Posts: 960 | Registered: Tuesday, September 18 2001 07:00 |
| What Jeff thinks (see his latest interview from IGN) in General | |
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written Tuesday, August 15 2006 13:08
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I will also point out that the article was specifically about MMORPGs. I defy anyone to go to the official World of Warcraft or Everquest forums and find that that are a generally useful and intelligent place. The people on the Spiderweb forums are generally friendly and useful, and I engage them on and off for actual feedback. Anyone who's been in the Geneforge 4 forum know that I have been taking and implementing actual suggestions from the community. Avernum 5 will incorporate suggestions from Avernum 4. But anyone who wants to take quotes out of context from a humor column and turn it into a big emo drama is welcome to, I suppose. - Jeff Vogel -------------------- Official Board Admin spidweb@spiderwebsoftware.com Posts: 960 | Registered: Tuesday, September 18 2001 07:00 |
| Riddle Me This, Batman! in General | |
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written Tuesday, August 15 2006 10:52
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The Shaw baby thing threw me off for a bit until I sat down with a paper and pencil. Looks to me like if every family had babies until they had a boy and then stopped, you'd still have equal boys and girls. The reason for this is that any given family might have a string of girls, but can only have one boy. This still holds if the family size is arbitrarily capped at n children. (i.e. if you get n girls, you stop.) Shaw was awesome. I'm gonna see Heartbreak House on Saturday. Supposed to be a good production. - Jeff Vogel -------------------- Official Board Admin spidweb@spiderwebsoftware.com Posts: 960 | Registered: Tuesday, September 18 2001 07:00 |
| Riddle Me This, Batman! in General | |
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written Monday, August 14 2006 23:24
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"For this specific case it does not matter as I specifically told you the outcomes until the final choice." Not correct. And a good example of why this problem is such a nightmare to discuss. The way the problem is stated has an implicit assumption in it, namely: that the host was going to open a door no matter what you choose. To see the problem, consider this alternate puzzle: You're picking one of three doors. One has a bag of money, the other two have poo. You pick door 1. The host, knowing that door 1 has the money and not wanting contestant to win it, opens door 3, shows you poo, and gives you a chance to switch. Should you? (The answer is no. OMG.) In other words, maybe the host opening door 3 was conditional on the contestant choosing door 1! The statement of the problem must make explicit that the host will reveal a bad door no matter what is chosen initially. This is a comment mistake in stating the puzzle, leading to long, idiotic arguments like this one. Before you argue further, PLEASE read the wikipedia page, which discusses this error, and others. In fact, the wikipedia link makes the whole discussion redundant. IBTL. - Jeff Vogel -------------------- Official Board Admin spidweb@spiderwebsoftware.com Posts: 960 | Registered: Tuesday, September 18 2001 07:00 |
| All the old conspiracies are making little baby conspiracies in General | |
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written Monday, August 14 2006 15:01
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Done without my permission. Will be undone. That is all. - Jeff Vogel -------------------- Official Board Admin spidweb@spiderwebsoftware.com Posts: 960 | Registered: Tuesday, September 18 2001 07:00 |
| Riddle Me This, Batman! in General | |
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written Monday, August 14 2006 12:16
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I'll add this instead of a stealth edit because I did make a mistake. The original statement of the problem is terrible. A better statement is here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monty_Hall_problem To be specific, the problem must make clear that the host will ALWAYS reveal one of the other 2 doors to have nothing behind it. The problem as stated at the beginning of this thread leaves open the possibility that, say, the host only reveals a door when the player originally chooses correctly. So, bad job all around. And, if you don't understand the problem properly stated, well, you have no excuse. This is something you can verify for yourself in real life with 2 minutes, 3 cards, and a "friend". - Jeff Vogel -------------------- Official Board Admin spidweb@spiderwebsoftware.com Posts: 960 | Registered: Tuesday, September 18 2001 07:00 |
| Riddle Me This, Batman! in General | |
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written Monday, August 14 2006 11:59
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The person should always switch. Period. If you don't believe me, well, if you ever meet me in person, we can play it with cash, with 3 cards, two 2's and an Ace (instead of the awkward door arrangement). I'll be the host. You bet ten bucks. If you pick right, I give you $25. After you pick, I'll reveal a deuce from among the two cards you didn't pick. You won't switch. We'll play 10 times. If you think that, after the reveal and not switching, you have a 50/50 chance of winning, omg! Great bet for you! 50/50 chance of getting $25 on a $10 bet. Then, after you lose a bunch of money, you can still comfort yourself with how smart you are. And if you ever get in this argument in real life, be sure to offer the wrong person a chance to put their money where their mouth is. - Jeff Vogel -------------------- Official Board Admin spidweb@spiderwebsoftware.com Posts: 960 | Registered: Tuesday, September 18 2001 07:00 |
| Geneforge Beta Testing in Geneforge 4: Rebellion | |
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written Wednesday, August 9 2006 23:00
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I strongly discourage testers discussing the game with each other during testing because I find the independence of their opinions to be very valuable. If several people some up witht he same view independently, I will give it a lot more weight. If every report is an echo chamber of everyone else's opinion, less useful. - Jeff Vogel -------------------- Official Board Admin spidweb@spiderwebsoftware.com Posts: 960 | Registered: Tuesday, September 18 2001 07:00 |
| Avernum 3, v1.1.4 Crashes in Tech Support | |
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written Wednesday, August 9 2006 14:36
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This is an oversight on the patch. If you patch an old Avernum 3 to the newest version, the application file expects the new graphics, but the old graphics file remains. For now, I'm going to remove the patch and just have people with ancient versions download the full version. It's been out long enough that a patch shouldn't be necessary. - Jeff Vogel -------------------- Official Board Admin spidweb@spiderwebsoftware.com Posts: 960 | Registered: Tuesday, September 18 2001 07:00 |
| Brief Geneforge 4 Update in Geneforge 4: Rebellion | |
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written Tuesday, August 8 2006 14:53
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Working on section 50 out of, probably, 81. By popular request, I have put Khyryk into the game. I didn't originally intend to, but when I saw that people wanted him back, I realized that he really, really should be there. He is the character that introduces the ideas that are becoming very important to the series. Also, his dialogue is fun to write. Also, items in your pack no longer contribute to weight. Items you wear do. Your squishy caster type in full plate won't move so good. This was a suggestion made on these boards, and I liked it. So you see? Sometimes posts on these boards do make a difference. - Jeff Vogel -------------------- Official Board Admin spidweb@spiderwebsoftware.com Posts: 960 | Registered: Tuesday, September 18 2001 07:00 |
| is geneforge easy? in Geneforge Series | |
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written Tuesday, August 8 2006 14:49
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For experienced gamers at normal difficulty, these games are not terribly difficult. And for more casual gamers, they can be very tricky. Some people, in particular, find that last third of Geneforge 3 to be very difficult. Making a game that is properly challenging to all players is pretty much impossible. - Jeff Vogel -------------------- Official Board Admin spidweb@spiderwebsoftware.com Posts: 960 | Registered: Tuesday, September 18 2001 07:00 |
| Starting Charcoal in General | |
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written Wednesday, July 26 2006 13:38
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Used gas and charcoal extensively. Hardwood charcoal (not briquettes) = teh win. When I fire up my Big Green Egg, I use little fire-starters packs, the sterno things you light and forget. Used several brands. They're fantastic. - Jeff Vogel -------------------- Official Board Admin spidweb@spiderwebsoftware.com Posts: 960 | Registered: Tuesday, September 18 2001 07:00 |
| Avernum V ideas in Avernum 4 | |
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written Friday, July 21 2006 12:45
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"GF does use a hex grid, underneath the continuously animated movement: you can only stop at places on the invisible hex grid." Not sure where you got this. Geneforge uses good old x-y coordinates on a square grid, like every other tile-based game ever. - Jeff Vogel -------------------- Official Board Admin spidweb@spiderwebsoftware.com Posts: 960 | Registered: Tuesday, September 18 2001 07:00 |
| Wow (G4) in Geneforge 4: Rebellion | |
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written Monday, July 3 2006 09:26
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"Why aren't there any children in Geneforge?" Part of it is the expense of graphics, as someone mentioned. But, if you'll think on it, you'll notice that there are almost no children in any computer RPGs. A lot of the reason for that is tactics/cowardice on the part of people in the industry. It's already getting politically and legally tough for us. Nobody wants to open themselves up to someone saying, "Hey! In their game, it's possible to chop up little kids with a sword! Ban it now!" - Jeff Vogel -------------------- Official Board Admin spidweb@spiderwebsoftware.com Posts: 960 | Registered: Tuesday, September 18 2001 07:00 |
| alternative keyboard layout support? in Tech Support | |
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written Friday, June 30 2006 11:26
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I am at the mercy of the DirectX (Windows) and the MacOS here. The calls the OSes provide to watch the keyboard for events, as far as I know, don't provide a lot of support for other keyboard layouts. I think the Mac has some calls that might do this for me, but they have other problems that make them unsuitable for use in games. I could implement DVORAK keyboards within the game myself. It hasn't happened so far because ... because ... well, I've been lazy, I guess. Can anyone point me to a good translation chart between QWERTY and DVORAK keyboards? If I had that, I might be able to implement it in Geneforge 4 and later games. - Jeff Vogel -------------------- Official Board Admin spidweb@spiderwebsoftware.com Posts: 960 | Registered: Tuesday, September 18 2001 07:00 |
| weight suggestion for G4 in Geneforge Series | |
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written Friday, June 30 2006 11:18
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This is the first time this has been suggested to me, and I think it's actually quite a good idea. I'll give this serious consideration. - Jeff Vogel -------------------- Official Board Admin spidweb@spiderwebsoftware.com Posts: 960 | Registered: Tuesday, September 18 2001 07:00 |
| Favorite Musical in General | |
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written Tuesday, June 27 2006 12:30
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I have a particular fondness for A Little Night Music. If this thread continues, I predict a lot of Sondheim. And horrifying, arbitrary bannings for anyone daring to push their stinky post-Evita Andrew Lloyd Webber on us. - Jeff Vogel -------------------- Official Board Admin spidweb@spiderwebsoftware.com Posts: 960 | Registered: Tuesday, September 18 2001 07:00 |
| Wow (G4) in Geneforge 4: Rebellion | |
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written Tuesday, June 27 2006 12:28
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"Jeff, I don't know how coding this would work, but would it be possible to make the game letterbox on widescreen monitors?" In the preference, tell the game to not switch resolutions. The game area should be nicely centered on the window. Let me know what happens if you try this and it doesn't work. - Jeff Vogel -------------------- Official Board Admin spidweb@spiderwebsoftware.com Posts: 960 | Registered: Tuesday, September 18 2001 07:00 |
| I don't like A4 in Avernum 4 | |
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written Monday, June 26 2006 18:51
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Thank you for your feedback. Sadly, whenever I change anything, there will be some people who don't like it. Hopefully future games will be more to your liking. - Jeff Vogel -------------------- Official Board Admin spidweb@spiderwebsoftware.com Posts: 960 | Registered: Tuesday, September 18 2001 07:00 |