Profile for I'll Steal Your Toast

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strange question in General
Agent
Member # 2210
Profile #23
How whiney, we hate a lot of political systems in the United States. Middle Eastern theocracy, various forms of socialism, dictatorships, communism, etc. I'm guessing there is a kind of love/hate relationship with fascism and monarchy in the United States.

Quite a few people like Spanish and Latin American style fascism in the United States. Franco was our friend for a long time, so was Marcos and Peron. I don't like them, but many people here admire their strong image. President Bush in many ways reminds me of a Latin American dictator in his style and presentation. We also like to read about the British royals which I find mildly ridiculous.

I find it amusing that people like to create wacky ideas about what Marx would have believed. Russia and China probably were not even on Marx's mind when he wrote the communist manifesto. China and Russia were not industrial states when their Marxist revolutions occurred, but they are and were the largest Marxist states. Apparently communism seems to be more readily adopted by non-industrialized societies.

Part of the reason China is the one large surviving communist state is that they have adapted many non-Marxian ideas. The primary one being the idea of "Continuous Revolution"-- the party must continually purge itself and introduce new ideas in order to reach the ideal status. Occasionally China goes through spring times. Thus there are many factions and continuous purging within the state. This allows change and new ideas to be introduced unlike Russian Communism which collapsed. Leninism, Trotskyism, and the various isms are slowly dying out.

[ Friday, May 20, 2005 11:29: Message edited by: Duke of Toast ]

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Wasting your time and mine looking for a good laugh.

Star Bright, Star Light, Oh I Wish I May, I Wish Might, Wish For One Star Tonight.
Posts: 1084 | Registered: Thursday, November 7 2002 08:00
strange question in General
Agent
Member # 2210
Profile #13
Nazism is a shortened form of national socialism-- in other words dictatorial socialism. We created the label fascism to differentiate the bad guys (national socialists) from the good guys (democratic socialists- French, Scandinavians, etc.). It was a nice piece of propaganda on our part. I applaud the labelling ;) . My mistake Mussolini created the label.

Fascism; a system of government marked by centralization of authority under a dictator, stringent socioeconomic controls, suppression of the opposition through terror and censorship, and typically a policy of belligerent nationalism and racism.

Not all socialism is bad. There is the democratic socialism of the Scandinavian which is fairly benign and leads to some of the highest living standards in the world.

Communism is basically a form of dictatorship in its current form. Somehow, the leaders of the party took over the idea of proledic-- the dictatorship of the proletariat and twisted it in a bad way. During the cultural revolution, they basically told everyone that it is the duty of the party member to watch over every member of the countryside to make sure they are acting correctly and report any infractions to the party. Their job was to look for "bourgeoise" elements so they could be rooted out. Unfortunately, what was described as bourgeoise was most of the educated intellectuals (engineers, teachers, etc.)... The higher up the chain of command the more susceptible you were to proledic as well as the more you could enforce the ideal.

Thus every member of the party effectively became a small dictator against the individual. A wonderful sophism was put forward it is the democratic right of the masses to make decisions for the individual. Because there were too many nonconformists-- they had to be reeducated to understand proledic in relocation camps.

The USSR, China and other not so notable states such as Vietnam, Cuba, Angola, Tanzania and Laos all claimed to be the "dictatorship of the proletariat," none ever claimed to have achieved communism. In communism there would be no government.

[ Friday, May 20, 2005 01:37: Message edited by: Duke of Toast ]

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Wasting your time and mine looking for a good laugh.

Star Bright, Star Light, Oh I Wish I May, I Wish Might, Wish For One Star Tonight.
Posts: 1084 | Registered: Thursday, November 7 2002 08:00
Are people inherently amoral? in General
Agent
Member # 2210
Profile #14
Amoral is not necessarily evil. Evil is learned from experience-- truly deviant and nasty individuals come from complex societies-- it takes a fairly complex ideology to create a Charles Manson, Jim Jones, or Idi Amin.

I would think of amoral as purely self interested to the point of not bothering with societal reinforcers. It would be impossible to survive with this attitude in a desert island situation. All would have to work together to survive or die.

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Wasting your time and mine looking for a good laugh.

Star Bright, Star Light, Oh I Wish I May, I Wish Might, Wish For One Star Tonight.
Posts: 1084 | Registered: Thursday, November 7 2002 08:00
Bahss Rated... in Blades of Avernum
Agent
Member # 2210
Profile #38
I am hoping that by the start of the scenario contest, June 1st, we will have a couple more candidates for crown princess :P . A four way argument is always better than a two way argument it is more confusing and entertaining.

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Wasting your time and mine looking for a good laugh.

Star Bright, Star Light, Oh I Wish I May, I Wish Might, Wish For One Star Tonight.
Posts: 1084 | Registered: Thursday, November 7 2002 08:00
Capitalism ho! in General
Agent
Member # 2210
Profile #19
This is pretty meaningless if you don't count debt. I have none, but I bet that most have more debt than the savings they have listed. Plus, even if they have money, if they have no rent (a house) , many could come out ahead of the 200,000-300,000 in real terms.

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Wasting your time and mine looking for a good laugh.

Star Bright, Star Light, Oh I Wish I May, I Wish Might, Wish For One Star Tonight.
Posts: 1084 | Registered: Thursday, November 7 2002 08:00
Suicide or Not? in Blades of Avernum
Agent
Member # 2210
Profile #3
Please polish what you already have to the point that everything works properly. No new additions until all the current bugs are fixed. I am waiting for it to come out. Hopefully, by this weekend. Stop adding things.

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Wasting your time and mine looking for a good laugh.

Star Bright, Star Light, Oh I Wish I May, I Wish Might, Wish For One Star Tonight.
Posts: 1084 | Registered: Thursday, November 7 2002 08:00
Drakefyre, Mariann, Jeff, Linda.. you're all dead. in General
Agent
Member # 2210
Profile #9
It showed I was nonexistent. But, now I am existent. I ponder whether I am dead or alive. The forums are acting like Schrodinger's cat. Is the toast burnt or buttered.

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Wasting your time and mine looking for a good laugh.

Star Bright, Star Light, Oh I Wish I May, I Wish Might, Wish For One Star Tonight.
Posts: 1084 | Registered: Thursday, November 7 2002 08:00
Star Wars! in General
Agent
Member # 2210
Profile #48
A film truly worth seeing Store Wars :D

I left the sound off. It is much better without them talking.

[ Tuesday, May 17, 2005 08:56: Message edited by: Duke of Toast ]

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Wasting your time and mine looking for a good laugh.

Star Bright, Star Light, Oh I Wish I May, I Wish Might, Wish For One Star Tonight.
Posts: 1084 | Registered: Thursday, November 7 2002 08:00
Your Name's First Google Image Result... in General
Agent
Member # 2210
Profile #4
He is breaking the tigers back. This is how the legend goes. An asian prisoner was caught and put into a jail cell. They tried to torture him, but nothing worked because he went into a trance. Finally, they brought a tiger into his cell. He promptly woke up and and shattered the tigers spine with his fist, then went back into his trance. (Don't know any other details after this.) I think it might have other versions.

[ Tuesday, May 17, 2005 04:25: Message edited by: Duke of Toast ]

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Wasting your time and mine looking for a good laugh.

Star Bright, Star Light, Oh I Wish I May, I Wish Might, Wish For One Star Tonight.
Posts: 1084 | Registered: Thursday, November 7 2002 08:00
Coffe or Tea? in General
Agent
Member # 2210
Profile #22
Occasionally, I like ovaltine at night. Morning coca-cola is a disgusting dot com corporate habit.

[ Monday, May 16, 2005 15:19: Message edited by: Duke of Toast ]

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Wasting your time and mine looking for a good laugh.

Star Bright, Star Light, Oh I Wish I May, I Wish Might, Wish For One Star Tonight.
Posts: 1084 | Registered: Thursday, November 7 2002 08:00
I CANT WAIT FOR A4!! in Blades of Avernum
Agent
Member # 2210
Profile #8
Just to act pointless. How does Spiderweb define summer; I want Geneforge 3 for windows.

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Wasting your time and mine looking for a good laugh.

Star Bright, Star Light, Oh I Wish I May, I Wish Might, Wish For One Star Tonight.
Posts: 1084 | Registered: Thursday, November 7 2002 08:00
Coffe or Tea? in General
Agent
Member # 2210
Profile #17
For those who don't like coffee or tea. Are you one of those people who drink jolt or coca-cola in the morning instead of coffee or tea? :o

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Wasting your time and mine looking for a good laugh.

Star Bright, Star Light, Oh I Wish I May, I Wish Might, Wish For One Star Tonight.
Posts: 1084 | Registered: Thursday, November 7 2002 08:00
Coffe or Tea? in General
Agent
Member # 2210
Profile #2
Both. Coffee at work and in the mornings. Green tea at night and at home.

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Wasting your time and mine looking for a good laugh.

Star Bright, Star Light, Oh I Wish I May, I Wish Might, Wish For One Star Tonight.
Posts: 1084 | Registered: Thursday, November 7 2002 08:00
Beta Call for Mad Ambition in Blades of Avernum
Agent
Member # 2210
Profile #10
Name: Buttered Toast
Platform: Windows XP
Design Experience: None
Email: wehireu (at) yahoo.com
Betatesting: A Perfect Forest, Lord Putidus, and various unnamable scenarios from the deep.
Are You Imban: I am Imban's secret long lost non-identical twin separated at birth. Where are you my brother? :P

[ Monday, May 16, 2005 01:26: Message edited by: Duke of Toast ]

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Wasting your time and mine looking for a good laugh.

Star Bright, Star Light, Oh I Wish I May, I Wish Might, Wish For One Star Tonight.
Posts: 1084 | Registered: Thursday, November 7 2002 08:00
Scenarios in Development in Blades of Avernum
Agent
Member # 2210
Profile #95
Am getting itchy. Maybe someone could try another port of a BOE scenario. There should be at least three ready at any moment. Maybe I am hallucinating about timeliness.

Archmagi Micael will finish Undead Valley 2.0 very soon. He is taking betatesters for a final product. Yay, finally, it is over. Wrote too soon. Glad I am not testing. :P

Looking forward to Demon Slayers scenario.

Looking forward to WildkarrdeSmugglers scenario-- Magi.

Who is working on scenarios for the June contest?
I am curious.

The deadline for the scenario contest is June 1, 2005.

There are ten prizes for the contest. So, hopefully there will be ten submissions for the contest. :)

Something to consider is that to properly test a scenario with betatesters it takes at least two weeks. This means that by May 15, 2005 a lot of the scenarios for the contest should start being betatested...

So get ready. Hopefully, a bunch more will be coming soon.

There were others in development:

Dahak-- Longshanks

Retr-O-- Saint Brevity and the Oochie squad -- getting a copy of both Windows BOA and Mac BOA to make conversion easier.
Arpeggiator-- Chronicle-- aiming to create it for contest in June. Basing it on a book.

Aquila-- Botanical Story
Supanik-- "The Demon Star"
Overwhelming-- Roussa
JadeWolf-- Black Valley
Solodric-- Archmage Ascension
Hawk King- The Way of the Guild
Guardian of Eternity-- Evil East
Milu-- Nephil Mountains
Arancaytar-- Eye of the Storm
Spineraker-- Hybrid Child
WildKarrdeSmuggler-- Magi -- beta testing should start in a week.
Archmagi Micael-- Maze. Please make it about three towns. Allow for a few resting spots like the empty dragons lair in Basshikava.

Asphalt of Apathy-- working on three separate scenarios, Wizcozski, Butrous Galli, Phish Phlot, Poit, Venom, , and Killercrono were working on unspecified works.

Jonah Zolohahni-- might be starting another one. (corrected)

glompingKhoth-- 1st- 5th level scenario.

YeahThatGuy-- working on a stealth style scenario based on assassinating a leader.

MikeS-- Working on a complete remake of Wizardry 1.

Terrors Martyr-- requesting graphics for new scenario-- Day of the Ursidae. Level 8-16 party. Characters will be Ursagi, graphics switch on party. Also asked for soldier graphics, graphic of a car, graphics of an armored vehicle-- for a Cityscape Scenario.

Lynkfox-- mentioned was working on mob graphics for a new scenario with his girlfriend. ALso trying to figure out how to limit magic.

Smoo-- Is working on another one ( 30th level and
up).

Arrna-- has a few ideas for scenarios.

Aliklik-- Level 60+ scenario.

Yeoman Cheesemonger-- Level 60-80 Scenario

Hopefully with a little encouragement we can beat the statistic of 4/24 and make 6-8/24 :P

[ Tuesday, May 17, 2005 01:03: Message edited by: Duke of Toast ]

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Wasting your time and mine looking for a good laugh.

Star Bright, Star Light, Oh I Wish I May, I Wish Might, Wish For One Star Tonight.
Posts: 1084 | Registered: Thursday, November 7 2002 08:00
The Reanimation in General
Agent
Member # 2210
Profile #19
Terraforming mars is a long way off. I can think of three things which would benefit people in real terms.

The most lucrative project right now, would be to get an asteroid mining concern going. Seriously one asteroid has 30 times the amount of metal than has been mined in all of human history. Think of it as a giant chunk of commerce waiting in the sky. Eventually with space elevators, closed ecosystem spaceships, and solar sails -- in the next century this is a real possibility.

The other project would be to build zero gravity manufacturing facilities for pharmaceuticals, crystals, and computer chips, all of which can benefit from a sterile zero gravity environment.

The third project would be to build solar power satellites. A long way off, but possible in the next century. This could if done right meet large amounts of earths energy needs.

While asteroids are rich in the metals and minerals needed for needed for building space facilities, comets are rich sources of the water and carbon-based molecules needed to maintain life. According to John Lewis (a University of Arizona planetary scientist), for example, the smallest Earth-crossing asteroid 3554 Amun (see orbit) is a mile-wide (2,000-meter) lump of iron, nickel, cobalt, platinum, and other metals; it contains 30 times as much metal as Humans have mined throughout history, although it is only the smallest of dozens of known metallic asteroids and worth perhaps US$ 20 trillion if mined slowly to meet demand at 2001 market prices. Moreover, water ice in comets can be converted to liquid hydrogen and oxygen, two of the primary ingredients in rocket fuel today. Thus, some believe that that, as we begin to colonize the inner Solar System in this new millenium, NEAs will become convenient sources of the raw materials needed for building space habitats while NECs will become vital "watering holes" and gas stations for interplanetary spacecraft.

This comes from--
http://members.nova.org/~sol/station/ast-mine.htm

[ Sunday, May 15, 2005 02:30: Message edited by: Duke of Toast ]

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Wasting your time and mine looking for a good laugh.

Star Bright, Star Light, Oh I Wish I May, I Wish Might, Wish For One Star Tonight.
Posts: 1084 | Registered: Thursday, November 7 2002 08:00
The Reanimation in General
Agent
Member # 2210
Profile #17
Our currency and exchange system is already changing rapidly. Increasing large amounts of money will be represented as data encrypted software programs on memory chips. The stock exchanges are moving to electronic formats as well.

Property is becoming more and more expensive. Eventually it will reach a point where most of the middle class will only have rights to what they own, a contract for their furniture, a contract for their house, etc.

Our identities are increasingly linked to our cash. Two hundred years from now, because of more and more identity crime, you may have to have iris, biometric, or dna scans to access your cash. This is a real possibility.

Also three hundred years from now, the world will have changed significantly geopolitically. I can predict one thing-- there will be a lot less countries and more consolidation of power. There is a very good likelihood that the currency will have been replaced with a new kind of currency-- turn in your old currency and replace it with something that can be easily tracked by the government to stop crime.

Telling your heirs that you want most of your money put in a trust account for when you are frozen won't work too well. I can easily see a judge ruling this kind of action insane and handing your money over to your heirs. Until they can prove that it is possible to revive you in the future your trust account is going to be looked on as a sign of mental imbalance.

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Wasting your time and mine looking for a good laugh.

Star Bright, Star Light, Oh I Wish I May, I Wish Might, Wish For One Star Tonight.
Posts: 1084 | Registered: Thursday, November 7 2002 08:00
Combat in Canopy Poll in Blades of Avernum
Agent
Member # 2210
Profile #38
Once you have a really strong party, all of the combat will be too easy. At about level 50-60 with a four character party, there is very little that they will not be able to defeat if designed properly. I use the high level party mainly to check things out-- the combat is automatically too easy. This is with the current scenarios.

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Wasting your time and mine looking for a good laugh.

Star Bright, Star Light, Oh I Wish I May, I Wish Might, Wish For One Star Tonight.
Posts: 1084 | Registered: Thursday, November 7 2002 08:00
Combat in Canopy Poll in Blades of Avernum
Agent
Member # 2210
Profile #36
Generally,
I try to play it once with the appropriate level party, then run through it with my Cheesy Party of Doom -- 85th level. I also have a singleton now 48th level. Some dungeons have party levels way off in sections initially, too high or too low.
In a way there is an advantage in running through a very high level party can be realistic. It allows you to check every corner-- map out the dungeons completely so they make sense-- with far sight. Make sure all the details are done properly. Check every point on the map. Unlock all the doors, check the traps, remove all the barriers. Make sure all the quests work properly. This can be done with an overpowered party not an appropriate level party. Check every inch.
Also, with most crack teams-- most of their time is spent on routine mop ups until something big comes along.

[ Saturday, May 14, 2005 15:05: Message edited by: Duke of Toast ]

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Wasting your time and mine looking for a good laugh.

Star Bright, Star Light, Oh I Wish I May, I Wish Might, Wish For One Star Tonight.
Posts: 1084 | Registered: Thursday, November 7 2002 08:00
Undead Horde Substitutes in Blades of Avernum
Agent
Member # 2210
Profile #29
There is always a chance you could do the reverse of an undead horde. The locals have found magical ruins, gold, and energy geodes in monster infested area. This starts a gold rush (no thanks to Machrones covering it in his newspaper) and various adventurers and mercenaries go in and start killing anything in the way of the gold and geodes.

This awakens the evil horde which is stopped by the masses of treasure seekers. (There are a lot of seekers because it is between wars-- after the slith war, and the empire plagues.) So you have sliths, nephils, vahnati, bandits, rebels, hobos, ex-empire soldiers, mages, etc.

The empire receives a threat leave or I start destroying towns by one of the more powerful monsters. A mining site is raised by quickfire.
The empire tries to setup a blockade against the monsters and incoming adventurers. But there are too many adventurers and not enough imperial soldiers at the scene.

This still does not stop the raving treasure seekers. Stories of incredible fortunes are circulating; the streets are paved with gold, the doors are silver chased, etc. You are called in to intervene before the empire sends in a division of soldiers and mages.

It could be a lawless wild kind of place, where you would have to fight and negotiate between both adventurers and monsters.

[ Saturday, May 14, 2005 12:06: Message edited by: Duke of Toast ]

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Wasting your time and mine looking for a good laugh.

Star Bright, Star Light, Oh I Wish I May, I Wish Might, Wish For One Star Tonight.
Posts: 1084 | Registered: Thursday, November 7 2002 08:00
special skills (in case you were wondering...) in Blades of Avernum
Agent
Member # 2210
Profile #29
I think your bought skills do not count towards getting special skills. You have to increase your base skills to get certain skills. For example if you have the bonus dexterity from being a Nephilim it will not count towards getting Sharpshooter for example. I think there may be some glitches because the games algorithms are off because of this. I am not too sure.

I also think that item bonus skill points like +1 dexterity are counted differently than base skills. I think they are counted as bought skills, or character traits. so they won't give you the ability to improve certain characteristics.

I think there are three types of skill effects-- base skills, bought skills (this possibly combines with item bonus skills), and character trait bonus skills-- which may have a separate way of being calculated. Somehow all of these interact in funny ways.

[ Saturday, May 14, 2005 09:59: Message edited by: Duke of Toast ]

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Wasting your time and mine looking for a good laugh.

Star Bright, Star Light, Oh I Wish I May, I Wish Might, Wish For One Star Tonight.
Posts: 1084 | Registered: Thursday, November 7 2002 08:00
Geneforge graphics added to the Louvre in Blades of Avernum
Agent
Member # 2210
Profile #2
That was interesting. I liked the clawbug. Everything except for the graphics for the Shaper, Agent, and Guardian graphics. I would love to chop up some shapers in Avernum.

[ Saturday, May 14, 2005 01:17: Message edited by: Duke of Toast ]

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Wasting your time and mine looking for a good laugh.

Star Bright, Star Light, Oh I Wish I May, I Wish Might, Wish For One Star Tonight.
Posts: 1084 | Registered: Thursday, November 7 2002 08:00
Recommended Reading in General
Agent
Member # 2210
Profile #27
I looked for The Source: Earth Voyage, by Martin Rackham. I could find the author but not anything else by googling. I even looked in this thing http://www.trussel.com/books.htm#BookSeek to see if I could pull it out of one of the book search engines.

How wonderfully odd.

It is 1999, and US President Lee Jones is a man under siege from enemies on all sides, human and alien. The Earth is in chaos as an interstellar strike force led by Commander Atel wreaks devastation.

But they reckoned without one man. James Lincoln Scott is a specialist in operational warfare, from the deserts of the Middle East to the jungles of Central America: a natural leader and inspirer of those in his command, a man with the ultimate inner resolve and survival instinct.

The odds weigh heavily against him, especially as the alien warriors are superb fighters, but james has come through numerous arduous campaigns and he's not about to give up...

The plot is pacey, subtle and full of unexpected turns. the dialogue is direct and effective and the action sequences are truly three-dimensional. The characters are credible beyond belief - moments after they are introduced to you they become old friends or new enemies.

The unthinkable has happened, but martin Rackham makes you: believe it, imagine it happening in every detail; and dread the next page.

Published By - Howling At The Moon - 1997
Paperback - 342 pages

Condition - Excellent unread condition.

I found the catalog of Howling at the Moon to be rather amusing.

http://www.investigatemagazine.com/products.htm

[ Friday, May 13, 2005 16:29: Message edited by: Duke of Toast ]

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Wasting your time and mine looking for a good laugh.

Star Bright, Star Light, Oh I Wish I May, I Wish Might, Wish For One Star Tonight.
Posts: 1084 | Registered: Thursday, November 7 2002 08:00
Recommended Reading in General
Agent
Member # 2210
Profile #23
Nothing like waiting for a few good books. Sigh I wish my library would hurry up and get them for me.

George R.R. Martin-- A Feast For Crows

John Ringo-- Into the Looking Glass

Richard Morgan-- Woken Furies

Karin Lowachee-- Cagebird

A recommendation-- The Overnight by Ramsey Campbell-- a horror novel set in a chain bookstore. It really does give that sense of strange other dimensionality which can occur in bookstores.

[ Friday, May 13, 2005 06:16: Message edited by: Duke of Toast ]

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Wasting your time and mine looking for a good laugh.

Star Bright, Star Light, Oh I Wish I May, I Wish Might, Wish For One Star Tonight.
Posts: 1084 | Registered: Thursday, November 7 2002 08:00
Beta Testing and Contest Scenarios. in Blades of Avernum
Agent
Member # 2210
Profile #0
Hi, all,
I am itching for a new scenario to play. I know people are making their scenarios for the contests. This is a brief reminder.
From the various scenarios I've tested; it takes about two weekends to properly betatest a scenario and get all the bugs out. This is quick.
The contest stuff is due on Wednesday June 1st about 18 days from now.
Hopefully, there will be a few available to be tested this weekend? Sending in an untested scenario may not be a good idea.
Prodding you and being a pain in the butt.

:P

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Wasting your time and mine looking for a good laugh.

Star Bright, Star Light, Oh I Wish I May, I Wish Might, Wish For One Star Tonight.
Posts: 1084 | Registered: Thursday, November 7 2002 08:00

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