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Thou hast not shown thy compassion well. Be more kind unto others! in General
Zeviz
Nuke and Pave
Member # 24
 written Monday, March 26 2007 09:49 Profile Homepage #15
quote:
Originally written by Spent Salmon:

I am pleased that our two voices of reason have singled out Nalyd as the primary cause of unhappiness, complained about mini-modding, and complained about modding all in the same breath.
I am fully aware of the irony of complaining about mod's handling of mini-modding. However, this course of action is less disruptive than appealing directly to authorities (which could enganger moderator positions) and more productive than complaining about it in KoL chatroom (which is just a waste of time for all involved).

quote:
I realize there are certain things that are tolerated, and certain things not tolerated by TPTB. It seems what is currently happening is tolerated. That can be the only acceptable situation. Otherwise it would mean that this place has been abandoned by TPTB.
It seems to me that there is far less moderator presence on these boards than there used to be. I mean it both in terms of general level of forum activity by the moderators (if we had top poster lists 3-5 years ago, most moderators would have been on them; now many mods post less than once a month), and in terms of the amount of spam and flaming tolerated on game boards.

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Be careful with a word, as you would with a sword,
For it too has the power to kill.
However well placed word, unlike a well placed sword,
Can also have the power to heal.
Posts: 2649 | Registered: Wednesday, October 3 2001 07:00
Thou hast not shown thy compassion well. Be more kind unto others! in General
Zeviz
Nuke and Pave
Member # 24
 written Monday, March 26 2007 08:42 Profile Homepage #6
quote:
Originally written by Hawkwind:

...
For the sake of the community, everyone really needs to take a step back. Ignore the noobs, and let the mods handle them. This is advice that I need to take as well. (Mods, you can make that easier for everyone by issuing a few warnings!) Don't let the community get dragged into the mud with everything else.
...
A good way for everybody to improve the atmosphere here (and your personal reputations) is to never post the first thing that comes to your mind when somebody is acting like an idiot:

Write down your angry post, but then close the browser and do something else for ten minutes. Then write down a new version and do the same thing. If you are still tempted to reply after that, make your post as polite as you can, because it's actually going to be a lot more effective than an angry rant. (Unless it's an angry rant by a person who never posted angry rants before. :) )

This would of course be easier if our moderators actually moderated the discussion, giving warnings (and harsher penalties) for flames and spam (particularly Nalyd-style harassment and mini-modding).

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Be careful with a word, as you would with a sword,
For it too has the power to kill.
However well placed word, unlike a well placed sword,
Can also have the power to heal.
Posts: 2649 | Registered: Wednesday, October 3 2001 07:00
Bring back Ed!!!! in General
Zeviz
Nuke and Pave
Member # 24
 written Monday, March 26 2007 08:24 Profile Homepage #24
I think the difference is not that old troublemakers were better, but that mods used to pay more attention to the boards, so those trouble-makers got banned very quickly. Llama/Bomber pair were more annoying than Nalyd, but those two got banned so quickly that now we fondly remember them as a colorful episode from the past.

So the solution is not to bring back Ed. It's for the mods to remember that they are supposed to do more than just show off their IP checking powers and collect pretty pictures for topic locking.

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Be careful with a word, as you would with a sword,
For it too has the power to kill.
However well placed word, unlike a well placed sword,
Can also have the power to heal.
Posts: 2649 | Registered: Wednesday, October 3 2001 07:00
To players of Avernum/Geneforge series in General
Zeviz
Nuke and Pave
Member # 24
 written Monday, March 26 2007 08:14 Profile Homepage #38
Solberg, cool down a little. I am not sure why you chose this topic for release of your anger, but video game preferences sound like a strange thing to get so worked up about. You prefer Avernum. Some people prefer Exile. Some people prefer TES Oblivion. While you could argue all you want about whose taste is more refined, such an argument always goes in circles, as we can see in this thread. (And most fans of Oblivion ( http://www.elderscrolls.com/art/obliv_pc_screens_01.htm ) would laugh at you as much as you laugh at Exile fans.)

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Be careful with a word, as you would with a sword,
For it too has the power to kill.
However well placed word, unlike a well placed sword,
Can also have the power to heal.
Posts: 2649 | Registered: Wednesday, October 3 2001 07:00
What a long strange trip... in General
Zeviz
Nuke and Pave
Member # 24
 written Monday, March 26 2007 07:16 Profile Homepage #6
Ephesos, happy birthday to your forum account. :)

As for reminiscences about the past, my entire outlook on life has changed a couple times over the past five and a half years. I won't go into too much detail, so I'll just mention that I had: thought about, and ended up not, applying to grad school; met, and lost touch with a lot of acquaintances; had several jobs and some unpleasant breaks between them; changed long term plans for the future several times; and a lot of more private things.

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Be careful with a word, as you would with a sword,
For it too has the power to kill.
However well placed word, unlike a well placed sword,
Can also have the power to heal.
Posts: 2649 | Registered: Wednesday, October 3 2001 07:00
Member numbers in General
Zeviz
Nuke and Pave
Member # 24
 written Sunday, March 25 2007 19:19 Profile Homepage #31
Going back to original topic, it's strange to think of all the changes that happened in my life since I've registered here. Ironically, this board looks like one of the very few stable constants.

quote:
Originally written by Mysterious Man:

So what's the member # cutoff line for oldbeeness?
When you no longer care about that question.

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Be careful with a word, as you would with a sword,
For it too has the power to kill.
However well placed word, unlike a well placed sword,
Can also have the power to heal.
Posts: 2649 | Registered: Wednesday, October 3 2001 07:00
Where You At Now? in General
Zeviz
Nuke and Pave
Member # 24
 written Sunday, March 25 2007 19:06 Profile Homepage #66
Dolphin, welcome back.

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Be careful with a word, as you would with a sword,
For it too has the power to kill.
However well placed word, unlike a well placed sword,
Can also have the power to heal.
Posts: 2649 | Registered: Wednesday, October 3 2001 07:00
Spiderweb MMORPG in General
Zeviz
Nuke and Pave
Member # 24
 written Sunday, March 25 2007 19:04 Profile Homepage #24
There is actually a "None of the above" option in this poll: "An entirely new single player game."

That's the option I've voted for. I think Jeff has sufficiently milked the existing series and it's time for something new.

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Be careful with a word, as you would with a sword,
For it too has the power to kill.
However well placed word, unlike a well placed sword,
Can also have the power to heal.
Posts: 2649 | Registered: Wednesday, October 3 2001 07:00
To players of Avernum/Geneforge series in General
Zeviz
Nuke and Pave
Member # 24
 written Sunday, March 25 2007 18:41 Profile Homepage #31
25 people have voted in the poll. 10 people (including me) have posted saying that they prefer Exile.

So looks like Exile is winning over either of the official options. :P

As for my answers:

Q1. Exile graphics were made by professional artists. A4 graphics were made by a secretary (Jeff's wife) with a 3-D modelling program. I think the difference is pretty obvious.

Q2. I liked the skill system and dialoge engine from Avernum, so I'll go with that.

Q3. Exile is clear winner in this category. There are almost as many types of undead in Exile as there are total types of creations in Geneforge. And that's just one category of Exile monsters. Enough has been said about Exile's superior spell system, so I will not repeat it.

Q4. I can't really answer this question, because all 3 series were fun and I don't pay attention to such details.

Q5. Avernum/Geneforge are more polished, so I'll go with those.

Q6. All had their duds, but overall Geneforge is stronger in this department, because Gf3 is still better than A4.

Q7. It's hard to decide, because each of the 3 series has its srengths and weaknesses.

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Be careful with a word, as you would with a sword,
For it too has the power to kill.
However well placed word, unlike a well placed sword,
Can also have the power to heal.
Posts: 2649 | Registered: Wednesday, October 3 2001 07:00
Forum overlap poll in General
Zeviz
Nuke and Pave
Member # 24
 written Friday, March 23 2007 12:50 Profile Homepage #4
The change that I was expecting has happened already. In the first half hour, 75% of the respondents said they visit both this forum and Shadow Vale. Now that ratio is down to 42% and it will probably continue to decline. (Only 2 out of 11 new respondents visit SV.) We also got a couple people from Desperance and some more from Lyceum and Polaris.

Here is the current breakdown:

Weekly:
Spidweb - 19
ShadowVale - 8
Lyceum - 4
Polaris - 3
Desperance - 2

Daily:
Spidweb - 18
ShadowVale - 7
Polaris - 3
Desperance - 2

Most:
Spidweb - 17
ShadowVale - 1
Desperance - 1

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Be careful with a word, as you would with a sword,
For it too has the power to kill.
However well placed word, unlike a well placed sword,
Can also have the power to heal.
Posts: 2649 | Registered: Wednesday, October 3 2001 07:00
the finest games in town in General
Zeviz
Nuke and Pave
Member # 24
 written Friday, March 23 2007 12:41 Profile Homepage #20
"Or" in that sentence is a disjunction, rather than an explanation. KoL is a parody of a MMORPG, built entirely from jokes. However, all jokes get old after a while and the game can also be played as a regular MMORPG.

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Be careful with a word, as you would with a sword,
For it too has the power to kill.
However well placed word, unlike a well placed sword,
Can also have the power to heal.
Posts: 2649 | Registered: Wednesday, October 3 2001 07:00
the finest games in town in General
Zeviz
Nuke and Pave
Member # 24
 written Friday, March 23 2007 11:18 Profile Homepage #16
quote:
Originally written by Andraste:

quote:
Originally written by Zeviz:

...and sometimes Runescape.
Heathen.
When I want a game that requires thinking, I play Civ4. (And play it well enough to win some competitive events, while we are at it.)

When I want to be amused, or to do some light grinding, I play KoL.

When I am too tired to think and just want level grinding, I play Runescape.

[ Friday, March 23, 2007 11:21: Message edited by: Zeviz ]

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Be careful with a word, as you would with a sword,
For it too has the power to kill.
However well placed word, unlike a well placed sword,
Can also have the power to heal.
Posts: 2649 | Registered: Wednesday, October 3 2001 07:00
Problems with Help the Rebels quest. in Geneforge Series
Zeviz
Nuke and Pave
Member # 24
 written Friday, March 23 2007 08:39 Profile Homepage #1
If I remember correctly, the only solution is to avoid picking up the canister before talking to Lankan about it. I'll double-check the scripts in the evening, if I have time. (You can find all the game scripts in the data folder, so if you don't mind spoilers it's possible to see effects of all dialogue options.)

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Be careful with a word, as you would with a sword,
For it too has the power to kill.
However well placed word, unlike a well placed sword,
Can also have the power to heal.
Posts: 2649 | Registered: Wednesday, October 3 2001 07:00
Why were these game decisions made? in Geneforge Series
Zeviz
Nuke and Pave
Member # 24
 written Friday, March 23 2007 08:34 Profile Homepage #3
It seems a lot of your problems come from starting the series in the middle, rather than from the beginning. This gives you a mistaken impression of the game design.

Try playing Geneforge 1 instead and you'll see that most of your comparisons with BG don't apply, because there is no party. The main idea of Geneforge is that you are playing a single character, who creates creatures to fight for him. Instead of a BG-style party of humanoids, there is just a group of created creatures that are no more than pets to your character.

This answers most of your questions about game design: you can't use pods on creations, because that would be about as effective as trying to forse-feed your dog some medicines, while he is chasing a cat. You can't really interact with your creations, because even when I try talking to my dog the only thing he does is wag his tail. :) And so on.

Geneforge 3 breaks this pattern by introducing human companions that you can interact with. As Thuryl said, Jeff is just 1 man, instead of a huge company that made BG, so there is very little character interaction he can script in.

As for level of support, BG sold several hundred times more copies than any of Spidweb games. There are one or two exellent walkthroughs for each Spidweb game. If there are fewer than several hundred exellent walkthroughs for each BG game, BG community has less walkthrough writers as proportion of the population. :P

PS And the search function seems to be broken, so just ask any questions you have and you'll get plenty of replies.

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Be careful with a word, as you would with a sword,
For it too has the power to kill.
However well placed word, unlike a well placed sword,
Can also have the power to heal.
Posts: 2649 | Registered: Wednesday, October 3 2001 07:00
G/A/E muitiplayer? in General
Zeviz
Nuke and Pave
Member # 24
 written Friday, March 23 2007 08:03 Profile Homepage #4
Add to Thuryl's list:

3) Jeff had stated that he has no experience with the kind of programming required to make an online game. And it doesn't sound like he has the money to hire outside developers either.

quote:
Originally written by Ephesos:

I don't like MMORPGs.
FYT :P
(The problems you've talked about are standard for MMORPGs and would actually be less severe in Avernum and in some other settings I've seen.)

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Be careful with a word, as you would with a sword,
For it too has the power to kill.
However well placed word, unlike a well placed sword,
Can also have the power to heal.
Posts: 2649 | Registered: Wednesday, October 3 2001 07:00
the finest games in town in General
Zeviz
Nuke and Pave
Member # 24
 written Friday, March 23 2007 07:53 Profile Homepage #13
The game I've played by far the most was Civilization 4.

Other games that I've enjoyed for more than a few days were BoE, Master of Magic, Master of Orion, and, in no particular order, Geneforges 1 and 2, Avernum 2, Nethergate, SubTerra, Baldur's Gate 1 and 2, and whatever else I am forgetting.

Currenly, my limited playing time is spend mostly on KoL (Kingdom of Loathing) and sometimes Runescape.

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Be careful with a word, as you would with a sword,
For it too has the power to kill.
However well placed word, unlike a well placed sword,
Can also have the power to heal.
Posts: 2649 | Registered: Wednesday, October 3 2001 07:00
Forum overlap poll in General
Zeviz
Nuke and Pave
Member # 24
 written Friday, March 23 2007 07:46 Profile Homepage #1
It's interesting to watch the evolution of votes on these polls. The current distribution is:

Weekly:
Spidweb - 8
Shadow Vale - 6
Lyceum - 3
Polaris - 1

Daily:
Spidweb - 8
Shadow Vale - 5
Polaris - 1

Most frequent:
Spidweb - 7
Shadow Vale - 1

This is about 30 minutes after the poll was posted, so it probably reflects opinions of most active posters.

EDIT: Yes, it was only 30 minutes, rather than 90. The daylight-savings confusion still persists.

[ Friday, March 23, 2007 08:05: Message edited by: Zeviz ]

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Be careful with a word, as you would with a sword,
For it too has the power to kill.
However well placed word, unlike a well placed sword,
Can also have the power to heal.
Posts: 2649 | Registered: Wednesday, October 3 2001 07:00
Think Inside of the Box - Thoughts from TM. in Blades of Avernum
Zeviz
Nuke and Pave
Member # 24
 written Thursday, March 22 2007 12:24 Profile Homepage #2
Another benefit of starting with a small scenario is that you'll get feedback quicker, which might encourage you to go on with a larger design project.

PS Shadowvale becoming new Lyceum makes sence, because people like to be in a place where they can feel like founders of a new community, rather than newcomers arriving to a party at the 11th hour.

--------------------
Be careful with a word, as you would with a sword,
For it too has the power to kill.
However well placed word, unlike a well placed sword,
Can also have the power to heal.
Posts: 2649 | Registered: Wednesday, October 3 2001 07:00
TJC Shaper is stuck on sucia island in Geneforge Series
Zeviz
Nuke and Pave
Member # 24
 written Thursday, March 22 2007 11:44 Profile Homepage #9
If you are going to use an editor that's a separate application, you can do as you suggest. (Just using a separate save slot.) In fact, you should always use several save slots because sometimes one of them breaks for no reason.

However, most editors require you to mess around with files on your computer. If you aren't familiar with moving and copying files and folders/directories/whatever-Apple-calls-them on your computer, you probably shouldn't use these script editors.

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Be careful with a word, as you would with a sword,
For it too has the power to kill.
However well placed word, unlike a well placed sword,
Can also have the power to heal.
Posts: 2649 | Registered: Wednesday, October 3 2001 07:00
TJC Shaper is stuck on sucia island in Geneforge Series
Zeviz
Nuke and Pave
Member # 24
 written Thursday, March 22 2007 11:30 Profile Homepage #7
The only thing you can do to be safe is backing up all your saved games and any data files the editor replaces. (Before you copy the editors into specified locations, make sure you make a backup folder and copy into it all SaveGame folders and any files that have same names as editor files.)

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Be careful with a word, as you would with a sword,
For it too has the power to kill.
However well placed word, unlike a well placed sword,
Can also have the power to heal.
Posts: 2649 | Registered: Wednesday, October 3 2001 07:00
Sects in Geneforge in Geneforge Series
Zeviz
Nuke and Pave
Member # 24
 written Thursday, March 22 2007 08:01 Profile Homepage #9
I joined Awakened, but destroyed Geneforge when I saw it. I don't remember if that caused Obeyer ending or not. I prefer the Awakened from Gf2 anyway.

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Be careful with a word, as you would with a sword,
For it too has the power to kill.
However well placed word, unlike a well placed sword,
Can also have the power to heal.
Posts: 2649 | Registered: Wednesday, October 3 2001 07:00
NOOOO!!!!!!!! in Geneforge Series
Zeviz
Nuke and Pave
Member # 24
 written Thursday, March 22 2007 07:48 Profile Homepage #17
quote:
Originally written by Infernal Flamming Muffin:

Um sawtooth, you do relize that the post before yours is over a month old?
You shouldn't post on a dead topic.
Um IFM, you do realize that you are not a moderator of this forum, so your post is at best spam and at worst a violation of the forum rules? We have moderators here for a reason. The reason is to prevent every arrogant newbie from trying to enforse his own version of the Code of Conduct. (And your version of rules isn't even close to the official one, considering that we've never had a rule against topic necromancy, but we do have a rule against harassing other members, which is what you are doing here.)

[ Thursday, March 22, 2007 07:54: Message edited by: Zeviz ]

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Be careful with a word, as you would with a sword,
For it too has the power to kill.
However well placed word, unlike a well placed sword,
Can also have the power to heal.
Posts: 2649 | Registered: Wednesday, October 3 2001 07:00
The U.S. and Iraq in General
Zeviz
Nuke and Pave
Member # 24
 written Thursday, March 22 2007 07:38 Profile Homepage #59
While multi-party systems sound good in theory, in reality the resulting government often ends up even further from average public opinion than under two party system. The problem is that while you still have your major liberal party that gets about 25-35% of votes and your major conservative party that gets 25-35% of votes, neither has enough votes to form the government. So they have to include a lot of small single-issue (special interest) and radical parties into their coalition. So instead of government leaning towards the center, as it does under a two party system, you end up with the government leaning towards the extremes.

As for mainstream parties absorbing popular issues into their platforms, that has happened many times in the past: anti-trust legislature and income tax are the first examples that come to mind. These issues were originally championed by small parties, but were picked up by mainsteam ones after gaining sufficient acceptance.

PS I like the way SoT put it: You need to convince less than 1/4 of the total voters to win a major party's primary. If you can't do even that, how can you expect to win in a democratic system?

[ Thursday, March 22, 2007 07:42: Message edited by: Zeviz ]

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Be careful with a word, as you would with a sword,
For it too has the power to kill.
However well placed word, unlike a well placed sword,
Can also have the power to heal.
Posts: 2649 | Registered: Wednesday, October 3 2001 07:00
Episode 3 Continued in General
Zeviz
Nuke and Pave
Member # 24
 written Wednesday, March 21 2007 21:38 Profile Homepage #456
quote:
Originally written by Dikiyoba:

Originally by IFM:

quote:
I just want to fit in, then that would at least be 1 place...
It is far more important to find a place you feel accepted in the non-virtual world than on the Internet.
This is very true.

To be honest, I wasn't expecting to hear this from Diki, but if even she admits this... :)

quote:
And if you hope to find acceptance within Spiderweb, you need to think again...
This is unfortunately true as well. You'd have better luck with some smaller clans for online RPGs, but I wouldn't recommend going that way. Try to make RL work out for you instead.

PS And since it's almost tomorrow already, Happy Birthday, IFM! :)

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Be careful with a word, as you would with a sword,
For it too has the power to kill.
However well placed word, unlike a well placed sword,
Can also have the power to heal.
Posts: 2649 | Registered: Wednesday, October 3 2001 07:00
The U.S. and Iraq in General
Zeviz
Nuke and Pave
Member # 24
 written Tuesday, March 20 2007 12:45 Profile Homepage #43
quote:
Originally written by Student of Trinity:

...
The question is which of the many errors made the difference that led to the case that is so much worse than that. Was there in fact ever any real chance for a much better outcome? Four years ago it seemed so, but was that an illusion?
...
After collapse of USSR, leader of an ultra-nationalist party won third place in the first free presidential elections in Russia. (By "ultra-nationalist" I mean "gangs of young men with shaved heads who attack "non-Russian" looking people on the streets.) Ultra-nationalists had as much success in all other formerly communist countries as well.

There had been about a dozen civil wars from Nagorniy Karabah to Bosnia, most of which probably never made headlines in the West.

When an iron fist that held together a multi-ethnic country suddenly disappears, something has to replace it. That something is usually ultra-nationalism. (Or, in Iraqi case, sectarian fanaticism, because sects of Islam play same role in their society as ethnicity plays in Eastern Europe.) I am not sure why this always happens. Perhaps, after the old order is exposed as evil and becomes uncool, people look for something to replace it and can find that replacement only in nationalism. (If we can no longer be proud of being citizens of USSR/Yugoslavia/Iraq, we can at least be proud of being Georgians/Croats/Sunnis.) The rise of nationalism by itself might not necessarily lead to war, but when it comes together with collapse of old power structures and rise of extrimist leaders, the outcome shouldn't be surprising.

Another reason why extrimist leaders tend to be so successful during such transitions is that moderates waste all their time squabbling about fine points of constitutional law, while extrimists/authoritarians are working on uniting and building up their power bases. Current situation in Russia is a good example of this fall of moderate reformers. They spent so much time attacking each other, that Putin's party got enough votes to modify the constitution to make parties eligible for Parlament seats only if they get at least 5% of votes in every province. The democratic parties are too fractionalized to pass this threshold, so there are only 3 parties in Russian parlament now: Putin's party, Communists (struggling as their supporters die of old age), and ultra-nationalists.

--------------------
Be careful with a word, as you would with a sword,
For it too has the power to kill.
However well placed word, unlike a well placed sword,
Can also have the power to heal.
Posts: 2649 | Registered: Wednesday, October 3 2001 07:00

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