Profile for Or else o'erleap.
| Field | Value |
|---|---|
| Displayed name | Or else o'erleap. |
| Member number | 335 |
| Title | Law Bringer |
| Postcount | 14579 |
| Homepage | http://www.polarisboard.net |
| Registered | Saturday, December 1 2001 08:00 |
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| Author | Recent posts |
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| 2016 in General | |
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Law Bringer
Member # 335
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written Monday, January 9 2006 05:47
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Spiderweb survived its first decade nicely and is going strong. I don't really see why it wouldn't still be around in ten years, although a lot can happen in a decade. Obviously. —Alorael, who predicts flying cars, space colonies, and alien visitors bringing a message of galactic peace and really delicious coffee. Posts: 14579 | Registered: Saturday, December 1 2001 08:00 |
| Swords or Spears? in General | |
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Law Bringer
Member # 335
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written Sunday, January 8 2006 20:53
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Postaroni is the most recent addition to the title list. Drakey added it a few months ago. —Alorael, who hasn't seen Drakey in a while. This either means that James is sulking or that Drakefyre is hatching devious, fruit-filled plans. Posts: 14579 | Registered: Saturday, December 1 2001 08:00 |
| Like Anyone Cares... in Richard White Games | |
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Law Bringer
Member # 335
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written Sunday, January 8 2006 20:45
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All I have to say has been said before, and in pictorial form:  —Alorael, who is disgusted by those whose taste for the prurient makes them desire a resurrection of crimes against humanity. Really! Posts: 14579 | Registered: Saturday, December 1 2001 08:00 |
| Favourite Avernum Game in The Avernum Trilogy | |
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Law Bringer
Member # 335
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written Sunday, January 8 2006 14:16
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A2. It has the best story and the quest list. —Alorael, who would call A2 the best just for Dark Waters. That section is worth playing by itself. Posts: 14579 | Registered: Saturday, December 1 2001 08:00 |
| General Problems/Issues in Avernum 4 | |
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Law Bringer
Member # 335
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written Sunday, January 8 2006 11:22
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TM likes putting words in others' mouths. Sometimes for clarity and sometimes just for effect. —Alorael, who tried and rejected an altered idiom. Putting text in someone's fingers does not work. Posts: 14579 | Registered: Saturday, December 1 2001 08:00 |
| Swords or Spears? in General | |
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Law Bringer
Member # 335
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written Saturday, January 7 2006 19:04
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In real life, it's rather difficult to chop through a thick stick of hard wood, especially if you don't want to dull your sword. That's ignoring the metal covering on some spears. Also in real life, speed depends on specific weapons, not just "sword." The larger the weapon, the more inertia it has and the slower it's going to move. —Alorael, is quite certain that knives are fast, but he wouldn't want to attack anybody with a spear holding a knife. Posts: 14579 | Registered: Saturday, December 1 2001 08:00 |
| Demo restictions ineffective in Avernum 4 | |
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Law Bringer
Member # 335
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written Saturday, January 7 2006 19:01
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All sales would have to be through agreement with the publisher, and then the publisher pays the developers' salaries. I don't know anything about standard arrangements in the software world, but it wouldn't surprise me terribly if royalties went to the company, not the individuals in it, and the only bonus of good sales came in the form either of specific bonuses or raises. Jeff is the developer and one third (but a very large third) of the publisher. He makes his money just fine from a certain site that has full games available for download. [Edit: Tag error!] —Alorael, who emailed Jeff about the registration barrier bug when it was first noticed. [ Saturday, January 07, 2006 19:06: Message edited by: Male, Female, or Alorale? ] Posts: 14579 | Registered: Saturday, December 1 2001 08:00 |
| Age in General | |
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Law Bringer
Member # 335
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written Saturday, January 7 2006 18:55
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All my esteem and respect for you have now vanished, Alex. —Alorael, who is 56, not 54. He is not Korean, not a businessman, and has no particular desire for cow products of any kind. His size and level of perspiration are both fairly average and his morphology is well within the commonly expected range of those who have one X and one Y chromosome. Posts: 14579 | Registered: Saturday, December 1 2001 08:00 |
| The nephilim language in The Avernum Trilogy | |
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Law Bringer
Member # 335
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written Saturday, January 7 2006 12:21
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More nitpicks! Why would nephilim use a different number system and have no zero because of their number of digits? Not all humans cultures on Earth used base 10, and it's not as though one of the missing fingers could be the zero finger. Human language has nothing to do with the sounds made by other primates to express feelings. I doubt nephil language would be equivalent to other cats' sounds. In fact, even purring could change from an expression of happiness (or whatever it is) to just another sound for communication. If that's true and vocal chords can work even when the larynx is doing what it does to purr, almost all nephil speech could be modified by purrs. (R or R+purr, F or F+purr, and so on). Since nephilim produce warrios aplenty and no mention is made of any lack of nephil stamina, I think it's fair to say that they evolved out of the cheetah model of energy bursts and into the slow and steady one. —Alorael, who would like to know if nephilim from all over the Empire were banished to Avernum and, if so, if they all spoke exactly the same language before coming down. If they didn't, the language of Avernum could become a pidgin of all the pure nephil languages or dialects from the surface. Posts: 14579 | Registered: Saturday, December 1 2001 08:00 |
| Why does Jeff make all the games for Mac first? in Avernum 4 | |
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Law Bringer
Member # 335
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written Saturday, January 7 2006 12:11
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Call of Duty 2 is being ported to Mac. Warcraft 3 was released simultaneously for Mac and PC. The first Splinter Cell was ported to Mac, although I don't know when in relation to its port to PC. Only Half-Life was never released for Mac, and it was apparently mostly ported and then dropped for unknown reasons. —Alorael, who would rather have an Avernum game than most of the above. Maybe any, although he shouldn't opine on the ones he's never seen. Posts: 14579 | Registered: Saturday, December 1 2001 08:00 |
| Avernum:4 vs Blades Of Avernum which is the best? in Avernum 4 | |
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Law Bringer
Member # 335
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written Saturday, January 7 2006 12:03
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They aren't in A4, although all the scripts necessary for them to exist seem to be written for other monsters. —Alorael, who wasn't sorry not to see a Doomguard. They're more pain than fun. Posts: 14579 | Registered: Saturday, December 1 2001 08:00 |
| Looking for similar games. in General | |
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Law Bringer
Member # 335
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written Saturday, January 7 2006 12:01
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Things look grim for Interplay. Since everything I know about the matter I learned in the last minute or so from Wikipedia, I'll leave it at that. —Alorael, who considers Google and Wikipedia the two tools that must be used in conjunction with just about every question that can be asked, including ones like "how are you?" and "where did I put my keys?" Posts: 14579 | Registered: Saturday, December 1 2001 08:00 |
| Bandit Castle in Avernum 4 | |
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Law Bringer
Member # 335
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written Saturday, January 7 2006 11:56
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They aren't really plot forks so much as slightly different endings that you can get. I don't think Bragg is one of them. He's too minor a player in the events of A4. —Alorael, who also didn't see any text that seemed related to the Eastern Gallery bandits in the ending. Posts: 14579 | Registered: Saturday, December 1 2001 08:00 |
| Which to buy? in General | |
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Law Bringer
Member # 335
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written Saturday, January 7 2006 11:54
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If you've played the demos, you already know how the games are different. We can't tell you which graphics and gameplay are better in your opinion. —Alorael, who would recommend buying the trilogy CD of whichever game you buy. The Avernum CD saves you $20. Posts: 14579 | Registered: Saturday, December 1 2001 08:00 |
| The nephilim language in The Avernum Trilogy | |
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Law Bringer
Member # 335
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written Saturday, January 7 2006 00:26
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Nephilim cannot have been banished to Avernum long before humans, because the Empire jumped on the idea of banishment quickly. I can't remember any reference to nephil aging, so I'll assume that they live somewhere around as long as humans, their generations come at roughly the same intervals, and so on. They're probably in the same situation as the humans linguistically and evolutionarily. Linguistically, like the humans, the nephilim were most likely sent down in a constant trickle and primarily first-generation exiles. Language doesn't spontaneously change because environment changes; it changes slowly over time because of drift. The nephilim were separated from the surface for significantly less than a lifetime, and they received a steady infusion of new surface nephilim. If youngsters were born in significant numbers in Avernum, which isn't certain (few humans were born in A1-ish times), they were raised to speak the language of their parents, which was the same language as the surface. Purring isn't from vocal chords. It has to do with closing and opening of the larynx in a way that can only be mechanically possible in a larynx incapable of roaring, and a larynx capable of roars can't be set up to purr. That's why no cats can do both and why nephilim couldn't either without very different physical structure. A cat is physically capable of purring or roaring on a species by species basis, and it's not really dependent on size. If nephilim can purr, they can't roar, and that's not likely to change in a century or even a hundred centuries. They couldn't change that if they wanted to, which I can't imagine they would, because I still don't see any cause for rapid language shift. If nephilim roar in the Avernum games, I think it's like human "roaring:" they make a loud, angry sound roughly analogous (but not homologous!) to the loud, angry sound made by some large cat species. Sure, nephilim can pronounce their names despite how strange they seem to us. They're probably no more physically incompatible with human speech than the clicks in various Khoisan languages. —Alorael, who realizes that this post is poorly written and feels no need to edit it. This is, after all, more biologically and linguistically serious than any discussion of a fictitious and nonexistent language in a fictitious setting deserves. Posts: 14579 | Registered: Saturday, December 1 2001 08:00 |
| Looking for similar games. in General | |
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Law Bringer
Member # 335
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written Saturday, January 7 2006 00:04
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It's also possible that the new D&D, stripped of such mystifying terms as THAC0, strange saving throws, and the less is more approach to armor was considered more appealing to the general gaming population, complete with septuagenarian Eskimos. —Alorael, who still wouldn't call Aurora the sequel to Infinity. The successor, perhaps. Posts: 14579 | Registered: Saturday, December 1 2001 08:00 |
| Why does Jeff make all the games for Mac first? in Avernum 4 | |
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Law Bringer
Member # 335
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written Saturday, January 7 2006 00:01
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Actually, about 50% of Jeff's customers use Mac, according to numbers cited somewhere that may or may not have been reputable. But the real reason is that Jeff likes Macs, uses Macs, and programs on Macs before porting. —Alorael, who will dismiss your assertion that Jeff should make games for Windows first as an argumentum ad populum. Posts: 14579 | Registered: Saturday, December 1 2001 08:00 |
| Party Useful Skills? in Avernum 4 | |
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Law Bringer
Member # 335
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written Friday, January 6 2006 21:48
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Well, yes. I managed to overlook razordisks entirely because they're just so wonderful when exchanged for beautiful cash. I could claim this was a masterful plan, but mainly I'm just prejudiced against throwing from previous Avernums and the joys of not having to count ammunition for bows in A4. —Alorael, who would feel some remorse if he could recall a single interesting thrown weapon. Even if they're powerful, they're not much fun. Posts: 14579 | Registered: Saturday, December 1 2001 08:00 |
| Queer Parry results in Avernum 4 | |
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Law Bringer
Member # 335
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written Friday, January 6 2006 21:43
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So luck is probably good for everythiing but combat? Okay. Sure. —Alorael, who knew he liked Parry. 10 points seems to be quite sufficient for ordinary immortality, though. Posts: 14579 | Registered: Saturday, December 1 2001 08:00 |
| Like Anyone Cares... in Richard White Games | |
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Law Bringer
Member # 335
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written Friday, January 6 2006 18:45
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Only for Slith Lord: I've read the messages. —Alorael, who edited out a post that was a minor crime against humanity. [ Friday, January 06, 2006 18:46: Message edited by: Arcane Methodological Square ] Posts: 14579 | Registered: Saturday, December 1 2001 08:00 |
| Any chance of seeing the old good graphs? in Avernum 4 | |
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Law Bringer
Member # 335
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written Friday, January 6 2006 18:43
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All the graphics would have to be remade larger, which would result in something much more expensive and still not really the same as the old Avernum graphics. —Alorael, who has to admit that he is a bit nostalgic for the old graphics. The new ones really are prettier and clearer, although this seems to be in no way an uncontested opinion. Posts: 14579 | Registered: Saturday, December 1 2001 08:00 |
| Dialogues in Avernum 4 | |
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Law Bringer
Member # 335
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written Friday, January 6 2006 18:40
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Efram's Demonslayer is almost as much of an artifact (in a historical sense) as the real thing. It's supposed to be an E/A1 party's first rumor of Demonslayer's existence. Most minor quests do change dialogue, but only minorly. Often you have to look at the second paragraph to see the changes. —Alorael, who could have done with some more substantial changes too. It's not really something he expected, though. Static worlds are part of the Spiderweb experience. Posts: 14579 | Registered: Saturday, December 1 2001 08:00 |
| what does A4 offer us? in Avernum 4 | |
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Law Bringer
Member # 335
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written Friday, January 6 2006 18:37
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Compare A4 to A1 or A2 and you can see that relatively good gear is available quickly. Only A3 made powerful items trivially easy to obtain from the very beginning. In Avernum health regenerates slowly in towns and energy does not, but both health and energy regenerate quickly outdoors. In Geneforge, the only way to regenerate is to enter a town. In A4 you regain your health and energy by entering a town or by killing monsters, which turns into health and energy depending on your First Aid skill. —Alorael, who was able to go indefinitely without visiting towns by midway through the game. First Aid makes long crawls through dungeons a matter of minimal terror. Posts: 14579 | Registered: Saturday, December 1 2001 08:00 |
| The nephilim language in The Avernum Trilogy | |
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Law Bringer
Member # 335
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written Friday, January 6 2006 18:33
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If nephilim are omnivores and able to communicate without many difficulties in whatever language is spoken by humans, as the nephilim in Avernum seem to do, they may not have such a different facial and dental structure. —Alorael, who could make a case for the nephilim no longer having a full language of their own and speaking a kind of nephil-human creole. Posts: 14579 | Registered: Saturday, December 1 2001 08:00 |
| A4 Demo in Avernum 4 | |
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Law Bringer
Member # 335
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written Friday, January 6 2006 18:20
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Since I apparently made him laugh, I'm going to give myself the benefit of the doubt and interpret Archangel as saying that he knows who I am but doesn't know me. Otherwise he's laughing at me, not with me, and I have to be sad. —Alorael, who doesn't want to be sad. His gender confusion is trouble enough, really. Posts: 14579 | Registered: Saturday, December 1 2001 08:00 |