Profile for I'll Steal Your Toast
| Field | Value |
|---|---|
| Displayed name | I'll Steal Your Toast |
| Member number | 2210 |
| Title | Agent |
| Postcount | 1084 |
| Homepage | |
| Registered | Thursday, November 7 2002 08:00 |
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| Biomass Future-- Will It Replace Oil in General | |
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Agent
Member # 2210
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written Tuesday, April 26 2005 11:10
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A hydrogen economy is very likely a biomass economy. Many of the fuel cells being built right now are based on using ethanol and methanol as energy carriers. There is a major problem with hydrogen-- fuel cells require platinum to make. I think there is not enough platinum in the world to replace all of the cars in the United States with fuel cell engines. Definitely not enough to supply the world with cars. This is a big time barrier. Also the size of the fuel tanks for hydrogen is a major barrier to producing hydrogen cars. If the platinum problem can be solved and the engine size problem can be solved, it is still very expensive. The other problem is that storage of liquid hydrogen on a massive scale is expensive. Building an ethanol economy now could transition into a hydrogen economy. Ethanol is a reliable fuel for hydrogen cars. [ Tuesday, April 26, 2005 11:27: Message edited by: Toasted Basilisk on a Shish Kebab ] -------------------- 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 |
| Biomass Future-- Will It Replace Oil in General | |
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Agent
Member # 2210
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written Tuesday, April 26 2005 10:23
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Something to consider is that there are several liquid resources which could be exploited. There is a shortage of natural gas right now, so natural gas could not replace oil. There is coal gasification which would have a tremendous negative impact. If all the oil is used up coal is one of the few resources which can be gasified. There is also propane which is a combination of natural gas and oil. The other option is to increase the amount of electric cars on the road considerably and focus on increasing electrical generation through nuclear energy, wind, and solar and having a transportation system that is not mainly based on combustion except for airplanes. For fast bulk land transport a new system of trains would probably need to be built. Or a combination mediated between the two. Something to note is that for fuel cell installations ethanol is the ideal fuel. It has close to no pollution except for making the ethanol. If we had a "hydrogen economy" it would most likely be based on ethanol or methanol. http://running_on_alcohol.tripod.com/id30.html The Freedom Car Program which is being pushed is either an electric vehicle or a hydrogen fuel cell vehicle. No pollution and no reliance on oil. http://www.eere.energy.gov/vehiclesandfuels/ You can only conserve and search for so long before it becomes necessary to change. [ Tuesday, April 26, 2005 10:47: Message edited by: Toasted Basilisk on a Shish Kebab ] -------------------- 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 |
| Avernum Online, or Daimonin? in General | |
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Agent
Member # 2210
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written Tuesday, April 26 2005 06:59
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If the backend is seriously rewritten, it could be turned into a for profit game-- 51% of the code or something like that. Redhat Linux costs money for example. But not Linux. I tried it out a bit more and it is pretty fun actually. -------------------- 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 |
| Avernum Online, or Daimonin? in General | |
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Agent
Member # 2210
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written Tuesday, April 26 2005 03:01
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Daimonin has a link to an older game called Crossfire. It is an update of an older system. There was a link to the older game. http://crossfire.real-time.com/screenshots/index.html There is a much greater variety of stuff in the older game. More classes, races, etc. So it might be pretty flexible. -------------------- 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 |
| post-canopy badness in Blades of Avernum | |
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Agent
Member # 2210
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written Tuesday, April 26 2005 02:50
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If it required arrows-- it would become even more powerful-- blessed arrows do +4 damage per level. Even steel arrows +2 level would make it too powerful. My party does not usually run out of arrows if done right. Carry 200-300 and it really doesn't matter. I think thrown weapons are underpowered-- there should be a few more damaging thrown weapons-- throwing axe, staff sling, kukri, magic grenade, flaming razor disk, poisoned shuriken. That is why Alderauge seems so powerful. [ Tuesday, April 26, 2005 02:51: Message edited by: Toasted Basilisk on a Shish Kebab ] -------------------- 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 |
| post-canopy badness in Blades of Avernum | |
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Agent
Member # 2210
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written Tuesday, April 26 2005 01:54
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Hah. I don't think Alderauge is that bad. At high levels 50th it is about right. ( A 40- 60 level dungeon could easily handle Alderauge.) A blessed crossbow like Hendrickson's crossbow does 5-30 + 1-5 per level of bows and per 2 levels of dexterity. With blessed bolts at +4 damage per level-- this is almost as much damage as Alderauge. My characters routinely carry about 2oo bolts or arrows. In Bahssikava it is about the right power for an archer to use. Against things like dragons, groups of slith avatars it is about right. With a singleton, it was the only way to get past general shroud. In Shrouds third form you get killed instantly as a singleton Unless you use Baldev and a heroic brew so you fry Shroud almost instantly. I had to try five times to figure out how to kill Shroud as a singleton. With a full party it was too easy. My mage in my Cheesy Party of Doom 85 th level with Morog's Scepter does more damage than the character with Alderauge. [ Tuesday, April 26, 2005 02:32: Message edited by: Toasted Basilisk on a Shish Kebab ] -------------------- 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 |
| Avernum Online, or Daimonin? in General | |
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Agent
Member # 2210
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written Monday, April 25 2005 14:17
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This thing is open source. However, I tried it a bit just the tutorial. The download is about 14 mb which is not too large. The graphics are nice and simple. However, the hot key system based on letters is very unwieldy. If it was a point and click system it would be much easier to use-- like the buttons in Avernum. The thing is a bit unwieldy and counterintuitive. Also the fighting system is a bit unwieldy. It would require serious modification for it to be like Avernum. The engine is open source. It looks very similar to Avernum in many ways. The interface could be reprogrammed to be like Avernums. However, this would break the copyright for Avernum. It needs a lot of work like three or four more rounds of betatesting. -------------------- 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 |
| Gate full of demons in Backwater calls in Blades of Avernum | |
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Agent
Member # 2210
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written Monday, April 25 2005 12:20
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When you return you are supposed to go through the gate. After you finish killing Marnok. With the invulnerability bracelet it is fairly easy to kill the demons. -------------------- 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 |
| Biomass Future-- Will It Replace Oil in General | |
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Agent
Member # 2210
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written Monday, April 25 2005 04:10
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Hmm. I think we are already making the switch to other fuels. It is being decided behdind closed doors. The missing piece is the following. There are no new oil refineries being built in the United States. Hasn't happened for years. Capacity for producing gas in the United States will not increase. More cars will be on the road. This is one of the reasons ethanol is growing exponentially. Gasoline is being cut by ethanol to meet supply demands. (I cannot verify this for you, but I think it is true.) It seems there is almost a secret handshake between ADM and Exxon to increase capacity (ADM is the largest producer of ethanol and biodiesel. It is also a hugely unethical megacorporation.) Legislation is also being introduced to mandate the doubling of ethanol production in six years in the United States as well as heavy subsidization of ethanol pumps. http://www.drovers.com/news_editorial.asp?pgID=675&ed_id=3051 http://www.aberdeennews.com/mld/aberdeennews/news/11401591.htm Ahh, the wonderful world of closed door decisions in the oval office of the United States. The other thing to increase capacity is the auto industry is building hybrid cars and flexible fuel vehicles. In addition gas mileage requirements are increasing. Also as gasoline becomes more expensive-- ethanol becomes more affordable because of economies of scale-- I think it costs $1.74 for a gallon of ethanol. Oops actually it is at $1.20 for a gallon of corn ethanol. Much cheaper than gas. You make a nice profit by blending with gas and charging more. This will go down in price with cellulosic ethanol. Also people will use public transportation more. Vehicle fleets like bus fleets are run from central locations. Because of a central location-- it is possible to fuel an entire fleet of vehicles with an alternative fuel. I think there are currently 500 fleets of vehicles that use biodiesel. Also the military is starting to convert fleets to biodiesel. U.S. Marine Corps Base, Camp Lejeune, NC: Has used biodiesel for about a year in approximately 300 to 400 pieces of equipment -- buses, caterpillar tractors, bulldozers, motor graters, etc. They currently use about 147,800 gallons of B20 a year. •U.S. Marine Corps Air Station, Yuma, AZ.: Has used B20 since January 2002 and are currently using 7,600 gallons a month. They use biodiesel in all diesel-powered, government owned, non-tacticalcommercial vehicles such as trucks and forklifts. •Scott Air Force Base, Illinois: Located about 30 miles east of St. Louis, serves as headquarters for 12 Air Mobility Command (AMC) bases throughout the nation. Two AMC bases currently use B20: Scott AFB has used B20 since April 2001 and uses about 75,000 gallons annually. McChord AFB (Tacoma, Washington) has used approximately 33,000 gallons since October 2002.(more) -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Page 2 •Air Force Space Command, Peterson Air Force Base, Colorado Springs, CO: Five Air Force Space Command bases use B20: Peterson (Colorado Springs, CO); Vandenberg (Lompoc, CA); FE Warren(Cheyenne, WY); Malmstrom (Great Falls, MT); Patrick (Cocoa Beach, FL). They have been using biodiesel since December 2001. “We have taken a leadership position in the Air Force in the alternative fuel arena, issuing some type of alternative product at all of our major units,” said Mr. Chuck McGarvey, Air Force Space Command’s fuels manager. “We must be responsible stewards of our natural resources, leaving behind a clean environment for our children and a nation not dependent on foreign oil.” •Everett Naval Station, Everett, Washington: Located in the Puget Sound area, this station has usedabout 50 thousand gallons of B20 a year since 2001. The switch to biodiesel was virtually seamless, according to transportation director Gary Passmore. “Older equipment took a filter change, but newer equipment needed nothing,” he said. “It went so smooth that no one really noticed.” •Fort Leonard Wood Army Base, Missouri: Began using biodiesel in March 2003. The base plans onusing about 115,000 gallons of B20 annually. •U.S. Marine Corps Logistics Base, Albany, GA: Has used biodiesel throughout the base for three years in about 375 non-tactical diesel vehicles including tractor trailers, forklifts, three-ton trucks, graders, farmtractors and in emergency generators. The base used 50,000-60,000 gallons of biodiesel last year. “Welove biodiesel and have experienced no problems whatsoever since switching to the fuel three years ago,” said Mike Elliott, GME Fleet Manager. The only alternative liquid fuel which is remotely capable of matching gaoline currently is biomass fuels-- ethanol, methanol, etc. We are being handed a biomass future without debate... Thus the DOE is telling us that we will have 50% biomass fuels by 2030. Hydrogen cars are being used like a shell game to confuse us. :cool: I would like to see counterarguments to what I am saying. Alternative paths-- e.g. instead of ethanol we will use electric cars and most of our energy will come from nuclear power. [ Monday, April 25, 2005 10:58: Message edited by: Toasted Basilisk on a Shish Kebab ] -------------------- 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 |
| Biomass Future-- Will It Replace Oil in General | |
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Agent
Member # 2210
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written Sunday, April 24 2005 11:35
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Here are the DOE statistics. Currently -- 10% of our electrical output comes from hydroelectric energy. 4% of our energy comes from biomass. The US DOE claims that 50% of liquid fuels could be provided by biomass by 2030. For electrical output it woul be about 8% of total electrical output. Ethanol has had record growth in output in 2004 continued the record growth trend that has defined the U.S. ethanol industry over the past several years. For the year, 81 ethanol plants located in 20 states produced a record 3.41 billion gallons, a 21% increase from 2003 and 109% since 2000. I think this is also true for biodiesel. You also have to consider by 2010 landfill gas plants and agricultural biomass plants will be in the production phase, having passed through the research phase. Also the proper mix for cofired switchgrass coal energy plants will have been done. There are currently six coal plants testing cofiring coal with switchgrass. Less than 1% of energy comes from wind power.-- the goal for the Department of Energy is to produce 5% of our energy from wind power by 2020. There are claims by environmental groups that 20% of our energy could come from wind. Cut that in half it is still 10 % of energy output. Less than 1% of energy comes from geothermal. Less than 1% of our energy comes from solar. Tidal power sources are not even being considered. Looking at the current situation. 15% of our energy comes from renewable energy sources. Increasing the output to 20% would require no governmental input by 2010. There is tremendous growth in the biomass industry. Wind energy is also growing very fast. Someone is saying we will make renewable energy 20% of our economy is taking credit for what is already going to happen. By 2020-- 10% hydroelectric 5% Wind 1% Solar 1% Geothermal 10% Biomass -- if it continues its growth trend. Thus 27% renewables without interference. To have 20% renewables by 2020 would require the government and energy companies to actively suppress renewable energy. [ Sunday, April 24, 2005 12:22: Message edited by: Toasted Basilisk on a Shish Kebab ] -------------------- 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 |
| good websites in General | |
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written Sunday, April 24 2005 05:45
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If you like Snopes and want to go off the deep end.. try http://www.forteantimes.com -------------------- 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 |
| Biomass Future-- Will It Replace Oil in General | |
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Member # 2210
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written Sunday, April 24 2005 03:43
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Biomass 50% of energy by 2030 Wind Energy 20% of energy by 2030 --How much energy can wind realistically supply to the U.S.? Wind energy could supply about 20% of the nation's electricity, according to Battelle Pacific Northwest Laboratory, a federal research lab. Wind energy resources useful for generating electricity can be found in nearly every state. Hydroelectric 10% of energy by 2030 -- 10% of our current energy use comes from hydroelectric. Geothermal-- Less than 1% of energy use currently is geothermal. The goal of the photovoltaic industry is to provide 15% of domestic energy usage by 2020-- This is possible. http://www.nrel.gov/ncpv/pvmenu.cgi?site+ncpv&idx=3&body=faq.html Tidal Power is not being used at all in the United States. This covers 95% of the United States energy usage. This leaves 5% left for non-renewable energy. This could be filled with Geothermal and Tidal power-- effectively creating a pure renewable energy economy. Non-renewables would be used during the transition-- As renewable energy increases over a thirty year period-- nonrenewable energy sources will be used up. However, I think that by the time a full transition occurs-- there will probably still be some reserves of coal, natural gas, and nuclear power. Nuclear power-- pebble bed reactors or 4th generation reactors would probably have to be used as a stop gap measure to produce about 10% of U.S. Energy. One thing to consider about how this is going to happen, is that portions of it are not going to rely on traditional energy companies. WM- waste management and other garbage companies are likely to develop waste gasification technologies. ADM, International Paper, P&G, Dow and farmers cooperatives are leading towards ethanol and biomass crops. GE Energy came out of a diversified company to become the largest producer of wind energy machinery. [ Sunday, April 24, 2005 05:39: Message edited by: Toasted Basilisk on a Shish Kebab ] -------------------- 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 |
| Biomass Future-- Will It Replace Oil in General | |
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Member # 2210
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written Saturday, April 23 2005 17:53
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This talks about it a bit. There are a number of issues about how energy crops and biomass would be collected. A lot of the biomass would not come from direct energy production, but biproducts of agriculture, landfills, municipal waste, and agricultural waste. Processing this material would create net environmental benefits. Also biomass products can be grown on non-agricultural land initially, or marginal land. Switchgrass, rapeseed, etc. http://www.ucsusa.org/clean_energy/renewable_energy/page.cfm?pageID=129 http://www.serconline.org/biomassdefinition/fact.html Another thing to consider is that it is just as possible to hybridize an ethanol vehicle-- ethanol/electric as a gas vehicle. I can very well see a hybrid ethanol/electric midsize car being sold on the market within 10 years. [ Saturday, April 23, 2005 18:16: Message edited by: Toasted Basilisk on a Shish Kebab ] -------------------- 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 |
| Biomass Future-- Will It Replace Oil in General | |
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Member # 2210
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written Saturday, April 23 2005 15:32
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From Mark's Handbook for Mechanical Engineers: * Ethanol yields about 12,770 Btu's/lb of thermal energy from combustion based on its HHV. On a volumetric basis that becomes 83,910 Btu's/gal. * Gasoline yields about 20,260 Btu's/lb of thermal energy from combustion based on its HHV. On a volume basis that becomes 124,800 Btu's/gal. Basically ethanol from corn could not replace gasoline. It could cut back reliance on gasoline. Ethanol from cellulosic biomass-- what is produced by Iogen could possibly replace gasoline completely. Cellulosic biomass is nonfood biomass paper pulp, wood chips, grass, rapeseed, etc. This has about half the energy density of gasoline. As far as developing countries, Brazil produces ethanol for its transportation on a large scale. It is focused on sugar cane ethanol. There is almost zero reliance on foreign oil. You might find this article kind of interesting. It is a possible model for many latin american economies. http://www.energybulletin.net/5021.html A thing which I found very interesting is that Brazil is the first country to develop an ethanol powered airplane. http://www.niburu.nl/index.php?showarticle.php?articleID=6830 Here is a recent opinion from China on renewable energy. http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/afp/20050423/sc_afp/chinaforumboaoasia_05 0423173757 China also recently bought a shipment of biodiesel from Green Star Products. http://www.greenstarusa.com/news/04-09-03.html [ Sunday, April 24, 2005 15:00: Message edited by: Toasted Basilisk on a Shish Kebab ] -------------------- 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 |
| Biomass Future-- Will It Replace Oil in General | |
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Member # 2210
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written Saturday, April 23 2005 12:30
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Let me put it this way. Every car on the road in the near future could be sold as a flexible fuel vehicle. It would not take much to do this. With a phase in period of five years to use as a standard this could be done. There are 3 million cars which are already flexible fuel vehicles-- run on either gasoline or an 85% ethanol mix. In the ten years after most of the older engines would be replaced by attrition. It is not far fetched. Diesel vehicles and engines would not require any change to run biodiesel. This is also true of heavier diesel equipment. This could be done easily in 15-20 years. -------------------- 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 |
| Biomass Future-- Will It Replace Oil in General | |
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Member # 2210
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written Saturday, April 23 2005 11:33
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I would like to see a diversified fixed set of renewable energy sources. Another source of energy which is not used enough in the United States is Geothermal Energy. This could be expanded significantly. The other source of energy which is being developed is tidal power-- tidal generators are conceivably much more efficient than wind power because they run 24 hours. The ideal for me would be a mixed renewable set of energy sources stretching from the mountains-- geothermal and wind, plains-- solar, wind and energy crops, to the sea-- tidal power and hydroelectric. As more nonrenewables are used up, this is more likely to happen. I see a very limited future for fusion-- simply because a fusion bomb in the future in the wrong hands would be a nightmare. Even dirty bombs are a nasty surprise-- conventional weapons packed with nuclear waste. In the future the biomass crops would be phased out and replaced with hydrogen energy. Another thing to consider is the idea of co-firing feeding switchgrass into coal and natural gas fired plants to increase energy output. This is being worked on by Southern Company. Geothermal http://www.geysers.com/CalpineGeothermalFacts.html Tidal Power http://www.hie.co.uk/aie/tidal_power.html Most communities won't support the construction of new nuclear power plants. The NIMBY idea is too strong. [ Saturday, April 23, 2005 13:16: Message edited by: Toasted Basilisk on a Shish Kebab ] -------------------- 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 |
| Biomass Future-- Will It Replace Oil in General | |
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written Saturday, April 23 2005 07:45
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Although, the land usage is a big problem, in the United States, many farmers are being paid not to produce crops and are going out of business. Initially it would be a tremendous boon for farmers in the midwestern states. It would put a lot of people back to work. Farmers are pushing to increase ethanol use. http://www.zwire.com/site/news.cfm?BRD=1302&dept_id=181978&newsid=14393208&PAG=461&rfi=9 I don't think it could produce all of the energy, no one source can do this, but it could make a serious dent in our use of nonrenewable energy sources. The other option which needs to be built up is wind energy. Once again this is not visible enough in the United States. The big producer of wind power in the United States is GE Energy. Because it is not a separate company from GE it is not very visible. http://www.gepower.com/businesses/ge_wind_energy/en/index.htm There are some companies which are quietly growing like Western Wind Energy company based out of Canada. However in the United States there is no big wind company comparable to Vestas AG. Wind power is very profitable and needs to grow considerably. -------------------- 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 |
| Biomass Future-- Will It Replace Oil in General | |
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written Saturday, April 23 2005 06:50
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I am very interested in the concept of a biomass future replacing large portions of our reliance on petroleum in the future. There are some 3 million flexible fuel vehicles on the road today in the United States that can run off either pure gasoline, or 85% ethanol mixture. This is a huge tax write off for automobile manufacturers that should be announced much more widely to the public. Diesel engines can be converted to run on either biodiesel or pure vegetable oil. The diesel engine was originally designed to run on peanut oil. Waste Management is working on large scale landfill bioreactors-- waste gasification. Diesel engines can be converted to run on either biodiesel or pure vegetable oil. This means that landfills and dumps would be converted into making biogas. Paper mills, breweries, and agricultural facilities all produce wastes that can be converted into ethanol. Many companies are already converting their agricultural wastes into methanol. Also human waste can be converted into biogas as well. ADM, Cargill and other companies are working on building something called a biorefinery which would completely replace the petroleum refinery. Corn, rapeseed, corn chaff, would be processed into industrial chemicals, plastics, and ethanol. Ethanol is already being produced on a huge scale by very large companies and is growing as a a product of farm cooperatives. I think if pushed as an option, 10-15% of the United States energy could come from biomass sources within 8-10 years. This cannot happen because of politics. It needs to change. The United States in the literal sense could have a green energy economy. Cellulosic Ethanol-- http://www.iogen.ca/ Grease Car-- it is possible to both heat homes with diesel generators and run diesel cars with raw vegetable oil. http://www.greasecar.com Flexible Fuel Vehicles http://www.eere.energy.gov/cleancities/vbg/consumers/e85.shtml Waste Management Inc. http://www.wm.com/WM/environmental/Bioreactor/index.asp Cargill, Dow, etc. http://www.eere.energy.gov/biomass/sugar_biorefineries.html ADM http://www.admworld.com/naen/fuels/petroleum.asp Biodiesel http://www.biodiesel.org -------------------- 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 | |
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written Saturday, April 23 2005 06:07
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Here goes. Mr. Slack just came out with Cresent Valley. Looking forward to Demon Slayers scenario. Who is working on scenarios for the June contest? I am curious. 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. 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. Asphalt of Apathy-- working on three separate scenarios, 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). 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 [ Saturday, April 30, 2005 14:42: Message edited by: Toasted Basilisk on a Shish Kebab ] -------------------- 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 |
| Plagues and Civilization Destroying Stuff. in Blades of Avernum | |
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written Friday, April 22 2005 10:40
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This is to promote the idea of really destructive effects and how they are described in Avernum. In avernum there are several super nasty plagues which happen. So far we have: 1) Environmental toxins-- Valley of the Dying Things. 2) Undead invasions-- Diplomacy With The Dead. 3) Demonic Invasions-- Cresent Valley, Backwater Calls, Lost Basshikava 4) Avernum-- Vahnati Plagues-- Disease, Drugs-- Skribbane, and Monster Invasions. 5) Spirit Created Genocide-- A Perfect Forest. 6) Barbarian Slith Invasions-- Za Khazi Run 7) Civil War-- A Small Rebellion 8) Political Corruption-- Xerch'de Let me see. These are pretty standard. I am looking for some new themes. Civilization collapse because of overuse of resources-- salinization, desertification, dead farm land, over fishing, cannibalism, overpopulation. ( I hope there is some of this in the next Slith homeland adventure.) Having your characters give terrible diseases to the natives you are visiting by accident or design because you are from civilization. Horrible mutant destructive things-- slime invasion. Mutant things. Ruins of old civilizations which contain terrible things-- quickfire, radioactive waste, bonewater dust-- barrels of super toxic dust which wipes out farmland, poisons water and leaves a heavy acidic residue. Hah... [ Saturday, April 23, 2005 01:32: Message edited by: Toasted Basilisk on a Shish Kebab ] -------------------- 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 | |
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written Wednesday, April 20 2005 15:35
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If you finish all the scenarios with a regular four character party-- try redoing some of the them with a singleton. It is much harder... -------------------- 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 |
| Background items in Avernum in Blades of Avernum | |
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Agent
Member # 2210
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written Wednesday, April 20 2005 13:40
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These are some thoughts on Worldbuilding in BOA-- small details which could be fleshed out. These are the majority items. The louvre has other items. Maybe I am overposting... :P 1) Livestock-- I've noticed that there are basically four livestock animals-- giant lizards, cave cows (green cows), chickens, and sheep. No pigs, no goats. Maybe goblins raise rats to eat-- not sure about this. There is no cheese from the livestock only meat. Maybe Troglodytes eat the spiny worms they raise. 2) Transport animals-- horses and giant lizards. Portals and small boats. I'd like to see a large boat. The empire is supposed to have them. 3) Food-- basically fish, steak, greens, dried meat, and bread. Also apples and pears. Specialty foods include cake and deli sandwiches. How about a piece of chocolate cake. 4) Agriculture-- apple trees and pear trees, crop rows of wheat, corals for sheep and cows. Maybe I can have some grapes. 5) Hunted animals- wolves, bears, ursagi, worgs, and rats produce animal skins to sell. Drakeskin is used to make gloves, boots, and armor. However, I have never gotten a drakeskin when I kill a drake. 5) Pets-- small lizards, dogs, and cats. Maybe an imp as a familiar. Maybe someone has a pet chicken somwhere. 6) Drugs-- soporific herbs, beer, wine, gremlin wine, ale, skribbane, poppy shrooms. Maybe I could be a teetotaler and have some juice or milk at the bar. There is also green tea, but no coffee in Avernum. 7) It would be interesting to see a few things added-- maybe a mill for wheat, a brewery, etc. might be interesting. A few of the common buildings are temple, shop, armory, farmhouse, mine, wizardry school, alchemy farm, general store, town hall, library, storage area for grain and food, etc. I liked the lighthouse in Cresent Valley and border guardpost in Canopy. Add a bit of variety. -------------------- 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 | |
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Agent
Member # 2210
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written Wednesday, April 20 2005 11:42
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Here goes. Mr. Slack just came out with Cresent Valley. Looking forward to Demon Slayers scenario. Who is working on scenarios for the June contest? I know Terrors Martyr is. I am curious. There were others in development: Dahak-- Longshanks Retr-O-- Saint Brevity and the Oochie squad Supanik-- The Yedda Prophecy and Hope Overwhelming-- Roussa Solodric-- Archmage Ascension Hawk King- The Way of the Guild Guardian of Eternity-- Evil East Air Run Kite Are., Butrous Galli, Phish Phlot, Poit, Venom, JadeWolf, and Killercrono were working on unspecified works. Spineraker might be working on something-- guessing on this one. Jonah Zolohahni-- might be starting another one. (corrected) Terrors Martyr-- requesting graphics for new scenario. 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. 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). Aliklik-- Level 60+ scenario. Yeoman Cheesemonger-- Level 60-80 Scenario [ Wednesday, April 20, 2005 11:48: Message edited by: Toasted Basilisk on a Shish Kebab ] -------------------- 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 |
| Gamestop buys EB Games in General | |
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Agent
Member # 2210
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written Tuesday, April 19 2005 07:45
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I don't think that Walmart is really that competitive with Gamestop. One of the reasons that Gamestop is so effective is that they are a spinoff of Barnes and Noble. This means they probably have much better secondary material than other stores-- manga comics, anime videos, games manuals, magazines, and nicknacks. If we follow the history of what Barnes and Nobles did to bookstores-- I am not surprised at what happened to EBGames. Not to mention better inventory control software, merchandising, and more effective targeted advertising. I am waiting for the lawsuits to start kicking in. Gamestop will start insisting on deep discounts from their suppliers and other stuff like Barnes and Noble did with the book market. This company is probably just as nasty as Barnes and Nobles is. They also have a pretty strong web presence, and this will get stronger with the EB games acquisition. Think lawsuits -- Microprose, Atari, and other producers will probably end up suing them to stop predatory practices. -------------------- 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 |
| Crescent Valley in Blades of Avernum | |
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Agent
Member # 2210
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written Monday, April 18 2005 16:35
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Just stop the conversation with the she demon when you get that hot feeling. Hit the done button. Restart the conversation. Ignore the reaction. Give her the doll when you get it. Found the arena for fighting monsters. Got the arena helm. Found the watchers entrance to Avernum. Did the underground quests. There are some hidden parts which are easy to miss. [ Monday, April 18, 2005 16:37: Message edited by: Toasty Warm ] -------------------- 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 |