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If you could invite 4 people to a dinner in any form... in General
Zeviz
Nuke and Pave
Member # 24
 written Monday, August 8 2005 14:49 Profile Homepage #49
quote:
Originally written by Icshi:

Genghis Khan, Joseph Stalin, Jack the Ripper, and Caligula.

...There were no survivors.
...
You have the right idea, but the list fails to achieve its full potential. Here is what I would to with it:
Genghis Khan - minister of "defense"
Machiavelli - minister of foreign affairs
Stalin - prime minister
Big Brother - president (or Goebels for minister of information)

With the formation of above cabinet, I'll be ready to properly rule the world.

A more [boring]serious answer: I'd probably invite 4 of my friends. Famous scientists and philosophers don't necessarily make best partners for dinner conversation and might not even be that good at explaining their theories to a random person like me. So the only thing you'd get from having them at your dinner table are bragging rites.

PS If we are allowed to invite fictional characters for an extended period of time, I'd invite an inventor of time machine, with all of his blueprints, along with scientists who discovered teleportation and rapid interstellar travel. I need to look up the names of the ones who come from books set in early 20th century, so that we'd have all technology necessary to build the inventions of these scientists.

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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
In nearly impossible situation in Geneforge Series
Zeviz
Nuke and Pave
Member # 24
 written Monday, August 8 2005 14:15 Profile Homepage #6
Guardian is the hardest class to play. (Shaper or Agent would have much easier game.)

If you have relatively high leadership, try using items to boost it to 10 and using Leadership/Mechanics routes. In some areas you can completely avoid fights even without leadership. In infiltrated shore (I think that's the one), where you are attacked by large patrols, you can make it less likely for patrols to notice you if you find and activate sporeboxes hidden in the forest.

When you reach the General, you'll be able to use the help of hist troops in many areas.

Another suggestion would be to decrease game difficulty.

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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
Public relation for BoA in Blades of Avernum
Zeviz
Nuke and Pave
Member # 24
 written Monday, August 8 2005 14:07 Profile Homepage #2
Congratulations. :) How did you do that?

Photobucket.com is pretty good for image hosting.

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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's your religion? in General
Zeviz
Nuke and Pave
Member # 24
 written Sunday, August 7 2005 22:53 Profile Homepage #62
quote:
Originally written by Student of Trinity:

...
Although Jews, Christians, and Muslims do try to base their lives on their holy books, I don't think that either the Bible or the Qu'ran is really a book about how to live. At least, not in the sense of being a list of rules or even of principles. Both books do contain substantial tracts of moral or social law, but in practice the religious communities that are founded on both scriptures are guided more by secondary bodies of law that have built up around the fundamental books -- and that frequently seem, at least to unschooled observers, to contradict the supposedly more fundamental revelations. Both sacred books also contain huge amounts of history and preaching and prayer and poetry, which have only indirect implications for how one should live.
...
Here, you've brought up one of the key differences between Christianity and Jewdaism and Islam. For Christians, as you've described, the spiritual idea are most important and holy books are just guides to direct people towards more moral life. On the other hand, for Jews and Muslims, Torah and Quaran are literally the books of law.

Torah literally gives the list of 600+ rules that Jews are supposed to follow in their everyday life. In addition to that, it contains a code of criminal law detailing specific punishments that should happen if the rules are broken. All other Jewish law is just an interpretation and expansion of Torah's laws to make them applicable to all aspects of modern life.

The Talmud (the main body of Jewish law and the most important set of books for Orthodox Jews) is simply a set of legal analysis of Torah, building a complete legal code with whole pages dedicated to smallest points, ranging from "when can a woman whose husband was lost a sea be considered a widow (and be allowed to remarry)" to "at what time should evening prayers be said". Torah is like US constitution and Talmud is like the full set of laws passed by Congress.

Jewdaism and Christianity are near the opposite ends of physical-spiritual spectrum:

Jewdaism gives its followers a set of rules to follow and says that their rewards or punishments will come in this life. There is some vague idea of "the world to come", but little influence is placed on it and there is no idea of hell.

Christianity places main focus on the idea of accepting Jesus as your personal savior and talks a lot more about spiritual ideas than about practical sets of rules to follow. The main rewards and punishments come after your death in the form of being sent to either heaven or hell.

From what I know of Islam, it is very similar to Jewdaism in this respect. Quaran is a legal text that serves as the basis for all Muslim laws and gives specific rules on how to live your life. (However, this is just a secon-hand knowledge, so you should check with religious Muslims to make sure.)

The reason some religious scholars reach opposite conclusions based on the same texts is the same as the reason liberal and conservative judges reach opposite concluions in US courts: if you try hard enough, you can interpret most laws to say something similar to what you want to hear.

[ Sunday, August 07, 2005 22:56: 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
Our President in General
Zeviz
Nuke and Pave
Member # 24
 written Friday, August 5 2005 11:00 Profile Homepage #116
quote:
Originally written by Aranfoolcaytar:

quote:
Originally written by Drakefyre:

2) Dolphin, I'm also confused by your objections to Bush stating that we're "not fighting Islam, we're fighting evil."
It's really a trap statement. The way he says "Evil" (as in "Axis of Evil") is too binary to be of any worth. The Evil he speaks of has a meaning in fantasy settings, but not in reality.

If he said the opposite however, he'd be bummed as much or worse.

Not that that isn't his fault of course. He should just stop using that idiotic E-word. It is currently overused in US politics anyway.

If he spoke neither of Islam nor Evil, but - as would be more accurate - "people perverting and falsifying the Islamic faith to promote their own agenda", people would be less riled up.

But then again, if he said that he might draw too much attention to the question whether he is not doing the exact same thing to the Christian faith. :rolleyes:
So what word would you use to describe people who measure their success by number of women and children they kill?

Bush said exactly what you wanted him to say: "we are not fighting Islam [we have nothing aganst Muslims in general], we are fighting evil ["people perverting and falsifying the Islamic faith to promote their own agenda" and measuring their success in number of civilians they murder]" Which part of that statement do you find objectionable?

--------------------
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's your religion? in General
Zeviz
Nuke and Pave
Member # 24
 written Friday, August 5 2005 09:54 Profile Homepage #23
Judaism 63%
Islam 58%
agnosticism 50%
Buddhism 42%
atheism 38%
Paganism 29%
Hinduism 25%
Satanism 25%
Christianity 21%

Not very surprizing, although I expected agnosticism value to be higher.

SoT, it seems to me that the questions in this test appear generic when talking about religions you know less about and specific when talking about religions you know more about. Since you are Christian, the questions about Christianity looked very specific to you. To me, they looked like versions of a generic question "Is Jesus the God". Similarly, to you "All adults should pray daily" probably looked like a generic measure of religiocity, while for me it's associated with certain branches of Jewdaism. The statements about nature might look like specific parts of some belief sets to a Pagan, but look like generic "do you like nature" to us, since we are unfamiliar with that religion.

[ Friday, August 05, 2005 09:56: Message edited by: Zeviz ]

--------------------
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
Human cloning in General
Zeviz
Nuke and Pave
Member # 24
 written Friday, August 5 2005 07:58 Profile Homepage #23
Jeros, the story was probably a thought experiment: "what if we could clone people". Even mammals couldn't be cloned until a few years ago because technology wasn't advanced enough.

PS I've edited my earlier post to make it more clear. I don't have any problem with growing artificial organs or genetic research in general.

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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
Say your prayers... in General
Zeviz
Nuke and Pave
Member # 24
 written Thursday, August 4 2005 23:23 Profile Homepage #35
quote:
Originally written by stranger:

...
quote:
I wonder if there was a world w/o religion...would there be more or less conformity between friends and family?
Wouldn't it be less because: a lot of religions are positive in respect to nurturing relationships, providing morals and offering marriage ceremonies (w/o religion there would be no concept of marriage). Religion is essential in the legal and social framework of (I daresay) most countries, without it there might be problems with morals and therefore social security, causing less conformity between friends and family.
In all communist countries (whose total population was a significant fraction of the world) religion was forbidden, but most people still got married and had strong families and strict morals. In fact, divorse rates in relatively religious America were much higher than in secular USSR. And moral rules in USSR were probably even stricter than in USA. Any society has to develop moral standards to survive, but those standards don't necessarily have to be based on a typical religion.

Back to the question of the thread, I say blessings before a meal only when the meal is part of a religious holiday and I am with religious friends. (I am not a very religious person myself, so my level of [Jewish] observance depends on the people I am living with: my family is completely secular, but some of my housemates in college were religious people.)

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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
Every Living Thing To Get A Barcode in General
Zeviz
Nuke and Pave
Member # 24
 written Thursday, August 4 2005 22:58 Profile Homepage #9
This article doesn't say anything about RFid tags or recording movements of humans or goods.

The article talks about a species database (similar to current scientific publications, but in electronic format). They also talk about a fast way of checking whether you've found a new species by comparing a function of its DNA with the records for existing species. (They call this function "bar code", but they could just as easily cally it "fingerprint".)

Back to the question of stamping RFid tags on every person, I don't think this is going to happen any time soon. There will be far too many complaints about privacy for this to happen even if when the technology is ready, which it currently isn't.

--------------------
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
Human cloning in General
Zeviz
Nuke and Pave
Member # 24
 written Thursday, August 4 2005 22:45 Profile Homepage #9
I think cloning humans (or even animals) is a very bad idea for two reasons:

1. [Most people who'd want clones of their loved ones exepect to get exact copies. This misconseption is displayed even by some people on this thread, who talk about living forever. However,] the clone's personality, attitudes and views will be very different from the original's. These things depend a lot on environment, so the clone will most likely be a completely differnt person.

This is the reason why I also dislike the idea of cloning pets: the new cloned kitten will not be the same as the old cat. Expecting it to be the same will only make the life miserable for both the pet and the owner.

2. Just like with genetic engineering, it will take a very long time until we fully understand what we are doing. For example, cloned sheep show some signs of being the same age as the original. (Thuryl could probably describe this in a lot more detail.)

On a broader question of genetic engineering of humans, there are many examples of things we could mess up. For example, many outstanding scientists and artists had serious mental problems. If the two conditions are genetically connected, we could destroy all genius in an attempt to permanently eliminate mental illness.

EDIT: Making things more clear in point #1 and adding following:

Just to clarify, I don't have anything against growing artificial organs. My post was discussing only reproductive cloning.

As for genetic engineering, genetic research is great, but I'd be careful with any attempts at creating a perfect human, whether by genetic engineering, eugenics, or cloning.

[ Friday, August 05, 2005 07:53: Message edited by: Zeviz ]

--------------------
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
Phyrric Gauntlets in A2 in The Avernum Trilogy
Zeviz
Nuke and Pave
Member # 24
 written Wednesday, August 3 2005 14:58 Profile Homepage #5
In that case it sounds like you are doing fine without these gauntlets.

--------------------
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
Stumped bigtime in GF3, need assistance in Geneforge Series
Zeviz
Nuke and Pave
Member # 24
 written Wednesday, August 3 2005 14:52 Profile Homepage #1
Since you've killed the rebels, you can go on to the next island. (Just tell Diwanya that you've killed rebels.)

However, if you are having trouble with infested pathway at this point, you might be doing something wrong. What are your stats/creature? And what creatures are causing you trouble?

--------------------
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
Phyrric Gauntlets in A2 in The Avernum Trilogy
Zeviz
Nuke and Pave
Member # 24
 written Wednesday, August 3 2005 11:53 Profile Homepage #3
That depends entirely on what other equipment you have and how much extra effort it would take to cure that desease.

If these gauntlets double the armor value of your main fighter, they are very helpful. If they are only slightly better than the alternative, dump them. Since I don't know the stats or equipment of your party, I can't be any more specific.

Try fighting a few battles with the gauntlets, then reloading the game and fighting without them. And if you do decide to dump them, put them in a storage room, instead of throwing them away, so you could pick them up later if you change your mind.

[ Wednesday, August 03, 2005 11:54: Message edited by: Zeviz ]

--------------------
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
We Are Not Alone in General
Zeviz
Nuke and Pave
Member # 24
 written Wednesday, August 3 2005 11:37 Profile Homepage #7
It is amuzing to see an Avernum RP on a random forum not affiliated with any Spidweb forums.

As for the similarity in style, what else would you expect from a forum-based RP in a fantasy game setting? :)

--------------------
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
Phyrric Gauntlets in A2 in The Avernum Trilogy
Zeviz
Nuke and Pave
Member # 24
 written Wednesday, August 3 2005 11:31 Profile Homepage #1
If you start getting desease for no obvious reason, these gauntlets might be at fault. Carrying a bar of radioactive metal could also make your entire party sick at random times. Otherwise, check if these gauntlets have negative effect on any of your stats, or increase damage taken from some forms of attack.

[ Wednesday, August 03, 2005 11:31: Message edited by: Zeviz ]

--------------------
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
Henchmen stats in Geneforge Series
Zeviz
Nuke and Pave
Member # 24
 written Wednesday, August 3 2005 11:28 Profile Homepage #5
I think dexterity has higher priority than endurance. It's always better to not get hit at all.

As for intelligence, I didn't need it until I bought her spell upgrade half way through the 3rd island. (After that spell upgrade, I had to start increasing her intelligence, because she was running out of energy in long battles.)

However, strength and dexterity are two primary skills for her, because with those skills high enough you don't need much endurance (most enemies miss) or much intelligence (most battles are over before you run out).

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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 items to keep? in Geneforge Series
Zeviz
Nuke and Pave
Member # 24
 written Wednesday, August 3 2005 07:36 Profile Homepage #5
Yes, the experience and gold are the same whether you give notes to rebel sympathizer in Fort Wilton or shaper in Inner Keep.

Collecting Iron Bars for sale is best done after the area is cleared. (Kill all enemies, sweep the area for loot, go to the next area, drop loot, repeat.) Iron Bars are among best things to collect for sale, because no matter how many you take, they only use 1 inventory slot.

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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
comparing plots (from the demos) in Geneforge Series
Zeviz
Nuke and Pave
Member # 24
 written Tuesday, August 2 2005 14:59 Profile Homepage #7
quote:
Originally written by Leonor:

...Maybe I should play through the games in order to appreciate the whole story? I am just confused though, as all stories seem to start in the beginning of the rebellion instead of having a logic follow up, like they were different approaches?
...
To understand overall storyline you have to play the games in order. You will not understand what Geneforge (the artifact) is unless you play Geneforge 1. And you will not know where drakons come from unless you play Geneforge 2.

Another reason why I'd recommend starting with Geneforge 1 is that it and Geneforge 2 have much better plot. If you are going to chose only 1 game out of the series, I'd recommend Geneforge 2, because it has largest range of meaningful options and much better plot.

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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
"I built time machines" in General
Zeviz
Nuke and Pave
Member # 24
 written Tuesday, August 2 2005 14:52 Profile Homepage #14
quote:
Originally written by Marvin, the paranoid android:

quote:
Originally written by Student of Trinity:

I have a time machine. It works great. It travels through time at a pretty steady rate, and keeps me posted on its progress with a handy digital display.
Great! Can I travel with you? I'd like to go several million years back, to see some dinosaurs.
Unfortunately SoT's time machine goes only forward in time and its rate is a steady 1 second per second.

I personally prefer time machines with analog displays. Digital just doesn't have the same feel.

--------------------
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
I am wed. in General
Zeviz
Nuke and Pave
Member # 24
 written Tuesday, August 2 2005 14:47 Profile Homepage #26
Congratulations. :) May your marriage bring only happiness to both of you.

--------------------
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 items to keep? in Geneforge Series
Zeviz
Nuke and Pave
Member # 24
 written Tuesday, August 2 2005 12:28 Profile Homepage #1
I heard that you only need herbs, shaper notes and shaper tools for various quests.

The rest of items might be useful for some recipies, but most of them can be safely sold. (And things like iron bars and flawed crystals can always be sold.)

--------------------
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
Long-distance relationships? in General
Zeviz
Nuke and Pave
Member # 24
 written Monday, August 1 2005 10:02 Profile Homepage #17
Whether long distance relationships work depends on people involved and the circumstances. I've seen two couples who started a long distance relationship and sucessfully converted it into regular one with one of the partners moving cross-country to live with the other. However, one of the couples met at a friend's wedding, so the initial interest happened after a couple days of RL contact. (And the fact that both of them were invited to that wedding, meant that this common friend had a very high opinion of both of them.) The other couple met through an online dating site. In one case both people were in late twenties. In the other, they were in early twenties, but had a lot of dating experience. (So in both cases people knew exactly what they were looking for.)

The main advice for a long distance relationship that you intend to make permanent is for each person to visit the other for about a week before deciding on anything. While you could spend hours on the phone every day (about 1-4 hours daily in the examples I've described), there are some things you will never know until you've seen how the person lives during everyday life. Going for a vocation together, or that person visiting you isn't the same thing as you visiting them.

Thus, while long distance relationships can work if done correctly, I would not recommend moving across country until you've visited each other a few times and had the relationship going for over a year. Seeing pictures and chatting online is not the same thing as living together.

[ Monday, August 01, 2005 10:05: Message edited by: Zeviz ]

--------------------
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
Hintbooks... in The Avernum Trilogy
Zeviz
Nuke and Pave
Member # 24
 written Sunday, July 31 2005 22:38 Profile Homepage #10
I never bought Spidweb hintbooks, because the games can be easily finished without them and any questions I might still have are answered on these forums.

As for BoE scenarios, I had to look up hints for most scenarios I've played. I guess the difficulty of puzzles in BoE scenarios is higher.

[ Sunday, July 31, 2005 22:42: Message edited by: Zeviz ]

--------------------
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
angierach in avernum 2 in The Avernum Trilogy
Zeviz
Nuke and Pave
Member # 24
 written Sunday, July 31 2005 22:30 Profile Homepage #2
To use the Phoenix's egg, you must have talked about it to Erika (and possibly the mage in Motrax's lair). I don't know if this is the problem in Avernum, but in Exile 2 it was possible to find Phoenix's egg without talking to all the people who were supposed to tell you about it, which would make you unable to use it.

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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
Geneforge 3 Tips? in Geneforge Series
Zeviz
Nuke and Pave
Member # 24
 written Sunday, July 31 2005 22:20 Profile Homepage #6
The way I pronounce him, it sounds Alvan. :)

And a couple more suggestions: if you are playing as Guardian, be aware that Parry isn't nearly as strong as it used to be. It's still pretty good, but you can't build your character around that single skill.

Also, there are some areas to which you'll have to come back later, when you are stronger. For example, advanced tests in the training center are far too tough for you when you just pass basic tests.

--------------------
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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