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If You Were President... in General
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Law Bringer
Member # 335
 written Wednesday, May 3 2006 07:51 Profile Homepage #10
quote:
Originally written by Kelandon:

How Thuryl ever won an election is beyond me. :P
Good looks, clever and careful manipulation, and utter ruthlessness.

[Edit: Why run for president when you already wield autocratic power?]

—Alorael, who is not equipped to run a country. He is also significantly incapable of getting a large group of fractious legislators to follow his lead, which means he'd be a pretty useless chief executive anyway.

[ Wednesday, May 03, 2006 07:53: Message edited by: There is no moniker. ]
Posts: 14579 | Registered: Saturday, December 1 2001 08:00
a4 is the best game yet in Avernum 4
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Law Bringer
Member # 335
 written Tuesday, May 2 2006 16:57 Profile Homepage #52
Ditto what Kel said. I really don't like the D&D memorize, cast, and rememorize magic system, and I usually get stuck and bored somewhere in the middle of Baldur's Gate I and II, say I'll come back later, and then do so by restarting entirely. I have yet to finish either.

Bomber, Baldur's Gate II is not downloadable. There might be a demo somewhere, but you'll definitely have to purchase it. All the usual suspects (Google, Amazon, etc.) apply.

—Alorael, who maybe ought to give BG2 another whirl.
Posts: 14579 | Registered: Saturday, December 1 2001 08:00
Fighting Rentar in BF - quick question in Avernum 4
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Law Bringer
Member # 335
 written Tuesday, May 2 2006 11:15 Profile Homepage #1
You have no choice about fighting Rentar-Ihrno at any point, but you get different choices in dialogue before the fight under the Basalt Fortress and again after the second fight. If you choose the more peaceful and less confrontational options you can get a different ending.

—Alorael, who would be upset if the culminating fights in a game of fights were avoidable. A4 is not about diplomatic solutions! It's about extreme violence!
Posts: 14579 | Registered: Saturday, December 1 2001 08:00
Your musical tastes in General
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Law Bringer
Member # 335
 written Tuesday, May 2 2006 07:30 Profile Homepage #72
I don't think anybody actually uses a sampler to just string together samples. There's always digital alteration of the notes as well. The result obviously isn't the same as a real orchestra, but it can come surprisingly close and, as has been pointed out, it's a lot easier to have a sampler than an orchestra.

—Alorael, who used to be impressed by the quality of sound some people could eke out of their MIDI. To be fair, he's still impressed. It's just not nearly as good as what other formats can accomplish even with synthesizers. How technology has advanced!
Posts: 14579 | Registered: Saturday, December 1 2001 08:00
Music: a legitimate poll in General
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Law Bringer
Member # 335
 written Tuesday, May 2 2006 07:25 Profile Homepage #12
I can think of no unifying elements to video game music besides the fact that it is from video games, which makes about as much sense as liking movie soundtracks because they're from movies. Video game music falls under another genre, and you can like that genre or not as you choose.

—Alorael, who recently read a very interesting argument over whether LOOM, game with its entire score taken from Tchaikovsky's Swan Lake, is musically great or musically terrible. The latter position left him scratching his head.
Posts: 14579 | Registered: Saturday, December 1 2001 08:00
The Abominable Photo Thread IV: A New Hope in General
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Law Bringer
Member # 335
 written Tuesday, May 2 2006 07:18 Profile Homepage #134
All we know for certain is that Saunders wants us to think that she has half a face.

—Alorael, who dares not delve into the potential motivations for such a tactic.
Posts: 14579 | Registered: Saturday, December 1 2001 08:00
Grob's Saw in Avernum 4
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Law Bringer
Member # 335
 written Tuesday, May 2 2006 07:15 Profile Homepage #1
I can't remember which tool is where or whether they're both in boxes, but one is definitely in a box just west of the ruined tower. I think that's the axe. The saw is then almost due east of the northeast corner of Fort Dranlon, an automap section or two away. Look around there.

—Alorael, who can say that it's north of the road east out of Dranlon, south of the road along the north edge of the Eastern Gallery, and located roughly between two tiny ponds.
Posts: 14579 | Registered: Saturday, December 1 2001 08:00
Your musical tastes in General
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Law Bringer
Member # 335
 written Monday, May 1 2006 17:19 Profile Homepage #66
quote:
Originally written by Wild Kinky Slugs:

Whether it makes the same sounds as the instrument or not, it can't express the subtle changes in notes. I can play a high E on the cello about a thousand different ways. I can play it with a slow wide vibrato, or a fast tight vibrato. I can play it with long smooth bowing (legato), normal bowing (detache), loud accented bowing (marcato), short choppy bowing (stacatto), and many, many more. A sample of a note from an instrument is almost as bad as using a keyboard.
What if the sampler has samples of someone bowing a number of ways and with a number of different vibratos? My understanding is that the best samples are really quite comprehensive.

It's still not as good as real playing, granted, but it can come close enough that there are people who genuinely can't tell if the music is a performance or samples.

—Alorael, who listened to a number of aforementioned pieces of music and remained unimpressed. Then he went looking for the "angry moonlight" movement of the Moonlight Sonata and discovered he doesn't have a Moonlight Sonata recording at all.
Posts: 14579 | Registered: Saturday, December 1 2001 08:00
Registration code question. in Avernum 4
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Law Bringer
Member # 335
 written Monday, May 1 2006 10:29 Profile Homepage #16
Avernum randomly generates a registration number when you first run it. The correct registration code corresponds to the registration number. If things go wrong and you have to delete everything and reinstall, Avernum randomly generates a new registration number. Neither code nor number are in any way linked to any computer but your own, so a database wouldn't do anything.

Without going into details of Spiderweb piracy, there are easier ways to rob Jeff than asking him for registration codes for other people. Besides, I think it's not really a huge risk. Most people probably don't know enough other players of Spiderweb games to make that kind of theft cost Jeff very much.

—Alorael, who would like to steer this back away from the illegal and who has nothing more legal to say.
Posts: 14579 | Registered: Saturday, December 1 2001 08:00
Question 2: Imbalance of Wealth in General
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Law Bringer
Member # 335
 written Monday, May 1 2006 07:44 Profile Homepage #81
quote:
Originally written by Thuryl:

quote:
Originally written by My Spleen:

I really think it's ethically acceptable to have unequal treatment. I feel no obligation to do good at random when I can do good to people towards whom I am inclined to do good.
But isn't doing good even when there's nothing in it for you the very definition of morality? If you're only doing good because you feel obliged to, you're not really being moral.
I'm less worried about creating more upstanding, moral citizens of the world than creating fewer destitute people.

—Alorael, who thinks Thuryl's trolling serves a valuable purpose. Someone always needs to articulate why eating the babies is wrong.
Posts: 14579 | Registered: Saturday, December 1 2001 08:00
The new armor system. (50% + 50% = 75%!?!?) in Avernum 4
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Law Bringer
Member # 335
 written Monday, May 1 2006 07:28 Profile Homepage #5
The traits before were meaningless, because the effectively bottomless sources of experience meant that patience could make even an all advantage, no disadvantage character come out fine. Many advantages had low penalties for their bonuses.

Avernum still heavily encourages the positive traits, but at least you can't throw them all on. If you did, I think it might be possible to cripple a character with too little experience.

—Alorael, who does miss being able to have a Fast on Divinely Nimble Elite Pure Mage. The name is so exciting!
Posts: 14579 | Registered: Saturday, December 1 2001 08:00
Question 2: Imbalance of Wealth in General
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Law Bringer
Member # 335
 written Sunday, April 30 2006 20:41 Profile Homepage #73
That's a nice straw man, TM, but I don't buy family as a slippery slope. It's possible to care more about your family and friends than strangers without ignoring the suffering of strangers completely.

I think family is the wrong term. Let's use community, and use it to mean people you know and with whom you interact. It's not a formal definition, but everyone can understand it. Outside of one's community is the rest of the world. That's others in your country and others across the globe equally.

I really think it's ethically acceptable to have unequal treatment. I feel no obligation to do good at random when I can do good to people towards whom I am inclined to do good. Outside that, though, all strangers also deserve good, and they deserve it equally. So yes, they're at another tier, and no, they're not ignored.

—Alorael, who would even be comfortable giving charity only to other Americans. There are many organizations that serve only one area or one kind of need. What makes aid to the third world inherently better than aid to the destitute closer to home? Needy strangers are needy strangers. Deliberately avoiding giving aid to Africa is not the same as deliberately giving aid to India and having nothing left for Africa.
Posts: 14579 | Registered: Saturday, December 1 2001 08:00
A2 tower of Elderwhats his face. in The Avernum Trilogy
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Law Bringer
Member # 335
 written Sunday, April 30 2006 20:32 Profile Homepage #4
Artifacts are made to be used by adventurers only. Other wizards, monsters, demons, and so on may hoard them, but they can never use them.

—Alorael, who is glad, too. All it would take is one trigger-happy vahnatai with a phoenix egg and Tinraya could be much less fun.
Posts: 14579 | Registered: Saturday, December 1 2001 08:00
Coin Cap at 30k? in Avernum 4
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Law Bringer
Member # 335
 written Sunday, April 30 2006 20:31 Profile Homepage #6
That still doesn't explain why a few more bits don't get allocated to gold. By the end of the game it's possible to run into the cap, although it's less of a problem than in previous Avernums.

—Alorael, who always found something to spend his cash on before hitting the cap and never resorted to the First Bank of Character Editor. It's a good thing, too, because it went under after A3.
Posts: 14579 | Registered: Saturday, December 1 2001 08:00
Your musical tastes in General
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Law Bringer
Member # 335
 written Sunday, April 30 2006 18:26 Profile Homepage #48
What do you see in not-classical?

—Alorael, who finds questions about taste absurd most of the time. He likes Telemann, Mozart, Dvorak, and Tallis because he likes them.
Posts: 14579 | Registered: Saturday, December 1 2001 08:00
Mertis: Where is Maxfield? in Avernum 4
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Law Bringer
Member # 335
 written Sunday, April 30 2006 17:10 Profile Homepage #1
He's in the fields in the northeast part of town.

—Alorael, who also lost Maxfield.
Posts: 14579 | Registered: Saturday, December 1 2001 08:00
Question 2: Imbalance of Wealth in General
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Law Bringer
Member # 335
 written Sunday, April 30 2006 10:09 Profile Homepage #63
Setting up morality to value everyone equally is creating a standard as impossible as Christian sin. Millions of years of evolution have set us up to value ourselves and our relatives more than strangers, and that's okay. If you're going to help someone, helping someone you know works fine. I'm inclined to think that mutual help in a small community works better than general help.

The difference is helping total strangers. There I can't see how strangers who live in the same artificially divided region of the world are more deserving than more distant strangers.

—Alorael, who by Thuryl's logic now has to consider whether killing everyone living in abject poverty would be good for the average happiness index. If half were killed and fed to the other half, would that be better? Ah, Thuryl, how you inspire creative evil!
Posts: 14579 | Registered: Saturday, December 1 2001 08:00
Writter's Block in General
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Law Bringer
Member # 335
 written Saturday, April 29 2006 21:07 Profile Homepage #40
quote:
Originally written by Tyranicus:

Now that Macs and PCs use the same processors, speed is as much a factor for Macs as it is for PCs. Also, the clock rate of a processor means very little these days anyway. What really matters is the front-side bus speed.
If there were any such quick and easy way to determine speed, benchmarks wouldn't exist. They do, and Macs still seem to perform better than their numbers would indicate, or so I have been led to believe.

Of course, there are also claims that Mac hardware running Windows with Boot Camp outperform "comparable" PC hardware. That seems rather odd.

—Alorael, who hopes someone will investigate the placebo effect in computing. Does attaching an Apple logo inspire processors to greater efforts?
Posts: 14579 | Registered: Saturday, December 1 2001 08:00
Question 2: Imbalance of Wealth in General
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Law Bringer
Member # 335
 written Saturday, April 29 2006 21:02 Profile Homepage #45
My point is that there is mixed evidence for throwing food into the stage two world leading to stage three. Throwing education in would make more sense, but people need to eat before they can learn. Eating leads to babies.

—Alorael, who is sure anyone who discovered the secret of attaining stage 3 would be a modern-day prophet for the third world. Well, probably not, the world being as difficult as it tends to be, bt that someone would deserve prophethood.
Posts: 14579 | Registered: Saturday, December 1 2001 08:00
Fort Remote in Avernum 4
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Law Bringer
Member # 335
 written Saturday, April 29 2006 16:52 Profile Homepage #3
You'll have to force the area to reload, which means wandering off to somewhere reasonably far away and then wandering back. Stepping through a pylon works too, as does backtostart.

—Alorael, who wouldn't know how to move shades at will without pylons.
Posts: 14579 | Registered: Saturday, December 1 2001 08:00
Question 2: Imbalance of Wealth in General
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Law Bringer
Member # 335
 written Saturday, April 29 2006 16:51 Profile Homepage #37
Am I detecting a hint of Ishmael? Do we focus too much on food today and birth control tomorrow? That seems like a good question, because while I disagree with a number of points in that book, I think we've already seen that increasing the amount of food increases the number of people, not the standard of living.

—Alorael, who has no solution. Letting a lot of people die is rather morally and politically untenable. Feeding a lot of people may not solve problems. Educating people is a great solution, except you can't do it without feeding them. Does that mean a food for oil^H^H^Heducation program?
Posts: 14579 | Registered: Saturday, December 1 2001 08:00
a hello and some questions in General
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Law Bringer
Member # 335
 written Saturday, April 29 2006 14:52 Profile Homepage #4
He's already played through the Exiles, Ben. He's looking for more suggestions.

I'd agree with Nethergate. It's a very, very good game. If you like the engine and wouldn't mind replaying Exile plots, download the Avernums.

The Geneforge games are different, but it's worth downloading one or two demos and giving them a try as well.

—Alorael, who wouldn't worry about having an old, slow laptop. Nothing but A4 will put any stress on your computer.
Posts: 14579 | Registered: Saturday, December 1 2001 08:00
Doors in The Exile Trilogy
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Law Bringer
Member # 335
 written Saturday, April 29 2006 14:48 Profile Homepage #5
To be fair, you are saving the world (or at least Avernum) from certain doom. The least they owe you is everything but the kitchen sink.

—Alorael, who has had minimal luck with extracting the clothes from their back.
Posts: 14579 | Registered: Saturday, December 1 2001 08:00
Deathmatch topics need loving too in General
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Law Bringer
Member # 335
 written Saturday, April 29 2006 12:50 Profile Homepage #48
2.3.1: I don't know. I just don't know. Chomsky has fewer names and is older and frailer, but despite Thuryl's remarkable ability to attract Spiderwebbers Chomsky also has more fans. Chomsky is an anarcho-syndicalist and Thuryl advocates heinous crimes up to and including post-natal abortion. In the end I think Chomsky would edge out his younger competitor by virtue of being a cunning linguist, which is a more dastardly state of pundom than Thuryl could ever match.

2.3.2: Ayla is from a time before sentimentality and pretty rainbows. Cuteness cannot stay her hands, feet, teeth, rocks, and dinosaur.

3.1.1: Bahamut is a fish when he's not a dragon. Glaurung is a full-time dragon. Glaurung was killed by Túrin, though, and frequently falls to intrepid adventurers in Angband. Bahamut generally doesn't die as a giant fish, a deity, or the king of dragons. In the end, the round has to go to Bahamut.

3.1.2. Nicol Bolas is a dragon who causes hands to be discarded. Khoth is a dragon with several homes, all of which have a great deal of magical lore lying around. It's really an apples to oranges comparison, but Khoth has one edge: he might post here. Thus, he wins.

3.1.3: A car versus an oddly drawn fictitious dragon from a fictitious world? I'll go with the car. (Knowing that Stanley Steamer is a Xanth character makes me wish I could do otherwise.)

3.1.4: Puff the Magic Dragon vs. Quox the Dragon

3.1.5: Again, a fish versus a dragon. This time I think there's really no way for the fish to win. Falkor.

3.1.6: Both have sadly comic names, but Tyranthraxus manages to come off as less entirely ridiculous and wins.

3.1.7: I cannot conceive of a card from a fictional world defeating a god. Seiryu.

3.1.8: A villain from a seminal console RPG against a robotic thing from an uninteresting television show? Dragonlord wins.

[Edit: I can't edit.]

—Alorael, who has had to refer to Wikipedia several times. He feels slightly enlightened and more than slightly stupefied.

[ Saturday, April 29, 2006 16:59: Message edited by: Ohe, vo stetto. ]
Posts: 14579 | Registered: Saturday, December 1 2001 08:00
Pronunciation in The Exile Trilogy
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Law Bringer
Member # 335
 written Saturday, April 29 2006 12:20 Profile Homepage #25
A bastard language with extraneous vowels excised.

—Alorael, whose advice is to give up.
Posts: 14579 | Registered: Saturday, December 1 2001 08:00

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