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 |
Recent posts
Pages
| Author | Recent posts |
|---|---|
| Nephil sighting in General | |
|
Law Bringer
Member # 335
|
written Friday, December 30 2005 12:00
Profile
Homepage
Why not look them up? —Alorael, who doesn't know of any pre-Mormon Nephi. Since the nephilim date back to the Old Testament, it's quite possible that the etymology goes the other way around. Posts: 14579 | Registered: Saturday, December 1 2001 08:00 |
| About a older (not yet found) thread in General | |
|
Law Bringer
Member # 335
|
written Friday, December 30 2005 11:55
Profile
Homepage
The Xian Skull came long after Misc. disappeared, and it was never moved to General either. It wasn't archived because it came before the first announced purge of General, which prompted the first PPP. —Alorael, who would pay for a copy of the Xian Skull and the complete BEEP. Not much, but something. Posts: 14579 | Registered: Saturday, December 1 2001 08:00 |
| Favorite and Most Hated Music To Play in General | |
|
Law Bringer
Member # 335
|
written Friday, December 30 2005 11:53
Profile
Homepage
I've never heard of a song flute and I can't find it on Google. A voice flute is a type of recorder, but it isn't very common. Most music I've seen written for voice flute ends up played on alto or tenor recorder because nobody has a voice flute. Have you ever heard recorder played well, Thralni? (This is a serious question. People in Europe often have. People in America haven't.) I can understand not liking a particular instrument, though. [Edit: Sig changed.] —Alorael, who has found some nice recordings freely and legally available. Michala Petri is a little buried under other instruments sometimes, but the Lento has some clear recorder in it. I've never heard of Drora Bruck before, but she plays beautifully and with a much quieter continuo. [ Friday, December 30, 2005 14:34: Message edited by: 5x5 ] Posts: 14579 | Registered: Saturday, December 1 2001 08:00 |
| About a older (not yet found) thread in General | |
|
Law Bringer
Member # 335
|
written Friday, December 30 2005 11:46
Profile
Homepage
The original topic is long gone, and I don't think anyone has an archived copy. —Alorael, who leaves it as a memory for relatively old-timers to reminisce about fondly or not so fondly depending on the personality of the reminiscer. Posts: 14579 | Registered: Saturday, December 1 2001 08:00 |
| They Do Exist in General | |
|
Law Bringer
Member # 335
|
written Thursday, December 29 2005 21:54
Profile
Homepage
If being able to turn off and on without damage is incompatible with life, do we stop being alive if cryogenics ever become feasible? Why exactly is growth necessary for life? On Earth it's because there are advantages to size and complexity that can't be present at birth, but who's to say that other mechanisms for reproduction (i.e. the aforementioned manufacturing) can't produce fully grown lifeforms? Internal organization seems pretty necessary, but cells don't. Cells are as much a product of evolution as the rest of life, and if life elsewhere could come up with another arrangement, that would work too. There's no scientific consensus on whether viruses are alive or not, although it's more of a semantic argument than a scientific one. The fossilized life from a Martian rock is also still debated, although I think the majority say that the "fossils" aren't. Mars isn't red because it's charred, and lighting a match in our very own atmosphere, which contains both ozone and oxygen, results in one small flame. There are better explosive pollutants available, but none of them seem to be part of Mars' very thin atmosphere. —Alorael, who thinks the universe is large enough that intelligent life appearing once seems like even more of a staggering coincidence than intelligent life appearing multiple times. The universe is also large enough that encounters between intelligent species could easily fail to occur. Or maybe not; with a sample size of 1, the standard error of all guesses is infinite, so who knows? Posts: 14579 | Registered: Saturday, December 1 2001 08:00 |
| Singleton party in Avernum 4 | |
|
Law Bringer
Member # 335
|
written Thursday, December 29 2005 21:44
Profile
Homepage
Nobody expects a singleton to be level 40. at the point where a party of four is at level 10. On the other hand, it seems equally wrong that a singleton will be at level 10 or 11 at that point. That's what makes a singleton oppressively difficult. Now I'm curious. I seem to remember having to dispel barriers to win, but now I can't remember where these essential barriers are. Anyone else know? —Alorael, who is quite sure that the reduction of experience gains in Exile and Avernum were never as severe as in Geneforge and A4. Posts: 14579 | Registered: Saturday, December 1 2001 08:00 |
| Carbonized Avernum Public Beta in The Avernum Trilogy | |
|
Law Bringer
Member # 335
|
written Thursday, December 29 2005 16:26
Profile
Homepage
It runs natively in OS X, as Jeff said. —Alorael, who imagines that this is less than enthralling news for the Windows users. For Mac users it's very nice. Posts: 14579 | Registered: Saturday, December 1 2001 08:00 |
| They Do Exist in General | |
|
Law Bringer
Member # 335
|
written Thursday, December 29 2005 11:55
Profile
Homepage
Are solar-powered machines designed to collect materials and construct copies of themselves alive? By your definition, yes. By common consent, no; even sophisticated programming is considered mechanical. But if we found self-replicating machines on another planet, would they be alive, artifacts of other intelligent life, or a coincidence? For that matter, is fire alive? It consumes energy and reproduces. —Alorael, who can't imagine life that can exist without in some way consuming and transforming energy. He can think of quite a number of hypothetical means of reproduction that wouldn't be anything like what happens on Earth. Manufacturing, for example, to stick with "natural intelligence" in machine-like life. Or the spreading of an amorphous mass like fire. Posts: 14579 | Registered: Saturday, December 1 2001 08:00 |
| They Do Exist in General | |
|
Law Bringer
Member # 335
|
written Wednesday, December 28 2005 22:54
Profile
Homepage
Neptune isn't all water. It is, to the best of my knowledge, all gas, and most of that gas isn't water vapor. If life adapts to hydrogen gas storms, maybe. Water on Mars and life on Mars are hotly debated, and I should leave them to someone who knows better. My limited understanding is that there are some patches of ice on Mars but no large areas of water anywhere we've been able to examine. —Alorael, who has also heard at various times that all the ice on Mars is carbon dioxide and that the ice below the surface of Mars would, if moved to the surface and melted, cover the entire planet in oceans. Pick your favorite theory. Posts: 14579 | Registered: Saturday, December 1 2001 08:00 |
| They Do Exist in General | |
|
Law Bringer
Member # 335
|
written Wednesday, December 28 2005 20:13
Profile
Homepage
The assumptions behind parochial and universal evolution could use another look. Specifically, the "universal" adaptations are only applicable if life requires certain elements present on Earth and thus shares certain characteristics of environment with Earth. Since we have a sample size of one planet to formulate our hypotheses, scientists could be very wrong about this. I can't think of any forms of life utterly unlike those on Earth, but I think that's an experience bias rather than a truth of how the universe must operate. —Alorael, who wouldn't rule out inability to identify alien life precisely because it's so alien. Is there even a clear definition of what life means in a context other than Earth? Posts: 14579 | Registered: Saturday, December 1 2001 08:00 |
| Favorite and Most Hated Music To Play in General | |
|
Law Bringer
Member # 335
|
written Wednesday, December 28 2005 20:01
Profile
Homepage
Kel, you fill me with rage and loathing. While the garklein and the pennywhistle may be more or less interchangeable, the pennywhistle makes a very poor contrabass. This is both because there are several octaves between them and because getting hit with a pennywhistle is likely to cause annoyance and getting hit with a contrabass is likely to cause hospitalization. CPeters, I'm not exactly sure what you mean. If you mean the political right has no secular members, you're quite wrong. If you mean that one cannot claim secular right as the obvious counterpart of divine right, well, you're still wrong. If that was a flimsy pretext for an unnecessary pun, I salute you. —Alorael, who takes pride in his role as militant flaut(a dolce )ist. Posts: 14579 | Registered: Saturday, December 1 2001 08:00 |
| Annatolia or Crewl? (possible spoilers) in Avernum 4 | |
|
Law Bringer
Member # 335
|
written Wednesday, December 28 2005 17:07
Profile
Homepage
If so, it's a strange bug. Normal behavior would make the town hostile if you attack Annatolia, and indeed this was originally what happened. The conversation option just ended the conversation and didn't make anyone hostile. Apparently the results of comments on the beta made attacking Annatolia only make Annatolia hostile. It's too deliberate to be a mistake. It's just weird. —Alorael, who supposes the people of Spire are loyal enough to protect their queen when she calls for help but not so loyal that they defend her when a band of roving adventurers whips out their implements of savagery and get to work. Posts: 14579 | Registered: Saturday, December 1 2001 08:00 |
| Favorite and Most Hated Music To Play in General | |
|
Law Bringer
Member # 335
|
written Wednesday, December 28 2005 17:04
Profile
Homepage
The recorder already lives again. The question is when it will burst forth and the tenors of righteousness shall be used in holy bludgeoning. While searching for freely available recorder music I came across a hilarious argument over what the recorder should be called. Apparently "recorder" is no longer politically correct and we should all be talking about blocklutes (Blockflöte) or fipple flutes. Oops. —Alorael, who doesn't have anything against plastic recorders as long as they're good plastic. Nobody who isn't a professional can afford to buy a bass made of wood, and that's why those black and white L-shaped Yamahas are so common. Well, common in the world of recorders, er, blockflutes. Posts: 14579 | Registered: Saturday, December 1 2001 08:00 |
| stuck in honey in Avernum 4 | |
|
Law Bringer
Member # 335
|
written Tuesday, December 27 2005 21:12
Profile
Homepage
I think I have an easier route to describe. Go through the southern Honeycomb entrance west of Mertis and stay to the south until the path curls north. You'll reach an intersection where you can go north, west into another map section, or east. Go east and take the stairs down. On the lower level, head east as far as you can and then follow the path south. You'll end up in a long cave with no branchings that eventually leads to a party of bandits posing as adventurers who won't let you through. Go ahead and kill them, then continue along to the northwest. You'll reach a place where the path branches to the east and west. To the east is the entrance to the bandit fort, and to the west the path curls, heads north to another map section, and goes past more stairs that lead up to Sleater's house. —Alorael, who can only remember the way to anything in the Honeycomb by knowing that everything important requires going south as much as possible. Posts: 14579 | Registered: Saturday, December 1 2001 08:00 |
| If I Could Make My Own Fantasy Game... in General | |
|
Law Bringer
Member # 335
|
written Tuesday, December 27 2005 20:11
Profile
Homepage
It's so nice to have minions to enforce your policies for you! —Alorael, who has no problems with anyone wanting to be weird and slip into the third person for the last paragraph of a post. The true ever-changing sig nature can be found in the emdash and the who. Posts: 14579 | Registered: Saturday, December 1 2001 08:00 |
| Formello? in Avernum 4 | |
|
Law Bringer
Member # 335
|
written Tuesday, December 27 2005 20:09
Profile
Homepage
The Silvarian variety also shows up. —Alorael, who only "encountered" those two breeds. That's not to say that an Almarian cousin isn't waiting in the cavewood groves at perfect face height. You just don't get warned. Posts: 14579 | Registered: Saturday, December 1 2001 08:00 |
| Hack and slash, slash, slash, slash, slash, slash... in Avernum 4 | |
|
Law Bringer
Member # 335
|
written Tuesday, December 27 2005 17:53
Profile
Homepage
That's also an exciting feature of Nethergate and Avernum games. It never did get fixed. —Alorael, who simply thinks of it as an exciting incentive for BoA scenario designers to experiment with different orientations. Posts: 14579 | Registered: Saturday, December 1 2001 08:00 |
| Like Anyone Cares... in Richard White Games | |
|
Law Bringer
Member # 335
|
written Tuesday, December 27 2005 17:51
Profile
Homepage
No, I had no such image before you mentioned it, and I was happier that way. Honestly, Kel, do you hate us all? —Alorael, who is injured both in that he now has a very bad image in his head and in that the sanctity of the person upon whom his cult of choice is founded has been slandered. It is a tragic, tragic day that has truly, truly merited double descriptors. Posts: 14579 | Registered: Saturday, December 1 2001 08:00 |
| Curious about something.... in The Exile Trilogy | |
|
Law Bringer
Member # 335
|
written Tuesday, December 27 2005 14:33
Profile
Homepage
In Upper Avernum in A3 there are a fairly large number of rainbow symbols floating around. I can't remember if this is true in E3 also. If I had to guess I'd say that Jeff veils his references to avoid offending his audience, but a good justification for the game would be the fact that on the surface, at least, homosexuality is grounds for banishment. —Alorael, who can't think of any characters besides Nance and Elspeth, though. There are the other rainbow people in Upper Avernum but their significant others don't appear. Posts: 14579 | Registered: Saturday, December 1 2001 08:00 |
| Favorite and Most Hated Music To Play in General | |
|
Law Bringer
Member # 335
|
written Tuesday, December 27 2005 11:29
Profile
Homepage
My favorite pieces to play are by Telemann and Bach. Bach's flute partitas in particular are great pieces for the recorder even if they're not always written with actual human beings having to play them in mind. I'm also very fond of the bass line of "Est Ist Ein Rose." Least favorite would probably be some modern pieces. One "Carousel" springs to mind as the most irritatingly mindless piece for every single part that still manages to sound very nice. Matthias Maute in particular is a wonderful composer and a good person who nonetheless has produced some mind-bogglingly bizarre lines. —Alorael, who holds a special place of hatred in his heart for every composer who betrayed the true flute by writing for traverso. The recorder will rise again! Posts: 14579 | Registered: Saturday, December 1 2001 08:00 |
| Reptile Island (spoilers) in Avernum 4 | |
|
Law Bringer
Member # 335
|
written Tuesday, December 27 2005 11:23
Profile
Homepage
I don't think anyone important in A4 gives you a dialogue option to eliminate with extreme prejudice. If you get that chance, go ahead and take it. At worst it's a quest that you haven't found yet. —Alorael, who can think of one semi-exception, but it's both quite obvious and still not something that can wreck your game. Posts: 14579 | Registered: Saturday, December 1 2001 08:00 |
| Hack and slash, slash, slash, slash, slash, slash... in Avernum 4 | |
|
Law Bringer
Member # 335
|
written Monday, December 26 2005 23:10
Profile
Homepage
Different tastes. I liked the chitrach maze under the Eastern Gallery. I also discovered that going into fight mode and waiting near egg sacs is the most efficient way to kill chitrachs. You get one free round to whale on the new bugs when they emerge. That was on normal, of course, and that assumes you want to try melee against chitrachs, which is not at all a certain proposition. —Alorael, who will nitpick and say that you couldn't get a singleton anywhere without entering combat mode in Exile. Nethergate introduced the concept of attacking with the first character in town mode. Posts: 14579 | Registered: Saturday, December 1 2001 08:00 |
| what does A4 offer us? in Avernum 4 | |
|
Law Bringer
Member # 335
|
written Monday, December 26 2005 22:51
Profile
Homepage
I think Shapers have always been capitalized in Exile/Avernum. Ponders, too. That's not a sign of impending unity. We still haven't accounted for the Vlish population. What happened to them in Avernum? The giants don't look like battle alphas. They look like giants. I, too, thought of the vahnatai when I saw the first signs of vahnatai, but I held onto the hope that it was going to be a clever twist, perhaps even a subtle and sarcastic joke and the poor plot of A3. When Darkside Loyalist signs started showing up, I felt those seeds of hope begin to flower. And then I ran into Rentar-Ihrno, and, well, that was that. —Alorael, who isn't so sure about ZKR's canon status. Fort Cavalier and those sliths aren't mentioned anywhere else, nor is the new member of the Triad. In fact, Kelner in the Tower Colony seems to imply that the Triad disbanded after the ToM disaster in A3. He also claims that he was a member around then, though, so he's either senile or there was some time in between the disaster and the disbanding. Posts: 14579 | Registered: Saturday, December 1 2001 08:00 |
| i need some more help. in The Exile Trilogy | |
|
Law Bringer
Member # 335
|
written Monday, December 26 2005 20:28
Profile
Homepage
1, 2: I don't know. Some doors can't be bashed, though. Try unlocking them magically. 3: The portal in the Portal Fortress leads to the Tower of Magi once you've recovered the Orb of Thralni. You need to have permission from Anaximander to go through it, which you can get after ending any of the monster plagues. 4. I don't remember if training makes you forget priest spells, but I don't think it does. It does take away the other benefits, though, such as skill boosts. You also lose all your old mage spells, which includes several that you can't learn anywhere. 5. No. The editor is free with any registration now, though. —Alorael, who isn't exactly sure how to take advantage of that offer if you don't have the editor from when you registered. Posts: 14579 | Registered: Saturday, December 1 2001 08:00 |
| Giscard in Avernum 4 | |
|
Law Bringer
Member # 335
|
written Monday, December 26 2005 20:22
Profile
Homepage
There are more than enough bottles in the game. I raided Giscard's house and storerooms before realizing I needed that wine for a quest too. You don't even need to purchase wine to meet the quota. —Alorael, who has to say that the wait wasn't worth it. You don't get any spectacular rewards from that surprisingly involved quest. Posts: 14579 | Registered: Saturday, December 1 2001 08:00 |