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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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First Impressions in Avernum 4
Or else o'erleap. Law Bringer Member # 335	written Wednesday, December 14 2005 21:14 Profile Homepage #33 Since when have RPGs had towns of realistic size? No Spiderweb game has, and even most professional games tend to miniaturize or find convenient means of having only important areas. —Alorael, who will reveal a small spoiler. Patrick's last act was a spell of some kind cast on Fort Ganrick. It was too much for his heart, though, and he died in the middle. The result of the half-cast spell picked up the fort and plopped it down far to the west, incidentally killing everyone inside. Avernum couldn't afford to waste a good fort but didn't want to have rumors of a cursed fort either, so they renamed the place and everyone was happy. Posts: 14579 \| Registered: Saturday, December 1 2001 08:00
What about the A4 monsters? in Avernum 4
Or else o'erleap. Law Bringer Member # 335	written Wednesday, December 14 2005 21:05 Profile Homepage #3 Artilas reappear with different names but the same identity. Roamers star as hellhounds. The only one that bothered me was chitrachs becoming clawbugs instead of green insects. You will learn to love and hate the chitrachs. Giants and ogres are very large. —Alorael, who didn't mind the differen color, same shape graphics much. They usually makes sense. A chitrach is a chitrach is a chitrach. Posts: 14579 \| Registered: Saturday, December 1 2001 08:00
What are you favorite fantasy authors? in General
Or else o'erleap. Law Bringer Member # 335	written Wednesday, December 14 2005 21:01 Profile Homepage #7 Topic schizophrenia? Just say no! —Alorael, who sloganizes but does not play well with others. Posts: 14579 \| Registered: Saturday, December 1 2001 08:00
A nation of immigrants in General
Or else o'erleap. Law Bringer Member # 335	written Wednesday, December 14 2005 14:35 Profile Homepage #9 My family tree is very much a part of American immigration. Russia and Austria don't mix in Europe. Italy tends away too. There were also those Irish Protestants, but they came to America so early that they were the oppressors of immigrants, not the oppressed immigrants. —Alorael, who even supposedly has an ancestor from Spain who bailed out, swam to shore, and learned English really fast when the Spanish Armada started losing. Posts: 14579 \| Registered: Saturday, December 1 2001 08:00
Screenshots? in Avernum 4
Or else o'erleap. Law Bringer Member # 335	written Wednesday, December 14 2005 08:34 Profile Homepage #1 Well, the pictures on the site are accurate. We can't exactly post images of the entire game, and nobody can claim that A4 is visually exciting. I think you need to take a few deep breaths, maybe drink some coffee, and see someone about your pre-withdrawal or whatever the lovely term Icshi invented was. —Alorael, who really has to say that the old Avernum engine was more exciting. Elevation really does add something, and the Ornotha Ziggurat was a very special place. Posts: 14579 \| Registered: Saturday, December 1 2001 08:00
First Impressions in Avernum 4
Or else o'erleap. Law Bringer Member # 335	written Wednesday, December 14 2005 08:31 Profile Homepage #17 Please don't post spoilers without warnings. In fact, a "First Impressions" thread isn't the place for spoilers at all. —Alorael, who didn't mind the graphics at all. Geneforge is prettier, but he didn't play enough for the graphics to feel recycled. If you don't like the shaper and guardian graphics, choose different characters. The only real problem was the chitrachs, which aren't green anymore and don't resemble praying mantises. Posts: 14579 \| Registered: Saturday, December 1 2001 08:00
So What Makes a Torment Capable Party? in Avernum 4
Or else o'erleap. Law Bringer Member # 335	written Wednesday, December 14 2005 08:15 Profile Homepage #12 The only common references to herrings are red herrings and Monty Python herrings. The mightiest tree is a dead giveaway. Either DV is a comic genius who was beaten to the punchline years ago or he's making a Monty Python reference. Hm. —Alorael, who once again suggests that the vahnatai lord might be manageable if surrounded by divine and vengeful shades. Probably not, but maybe. Posts: 14579 \| Registered: Saturday, December 1 2001 08:00
Numbers in General
Or else o'erleap. Law Bringer Member # 335	written Wednesday, December 14 2005 08:11 Profile Homepage #45 No, I have not spammed. I have double posted a few times. Two were after 9900 posts, so they got more attention. My double post rate is no higher than most over four years. The race to 1000 involved no especially large amounts of spam. The effort to get Morgan to 1000 posts did pretty much consist of posts that could only very loosely be described as anything but spam, but they were for a good cause. —Alorael, who can't believe this is still being discussed. Come on! Half a month and a hundred some posts later is not the time to make accusations of spam! This post is fully justified. Posts: 14579 \| Registered: Saturday, December 1 2001 08:00
So What Makes a Torment Capable Party? in Avernum 4
Or else o'erleap. Law Bringer Member # 335	written Tuesday, December 13 2005 19:18 Profile Homepage #6 Something to ponder: If raising the difficulty makes monsters tougher, does it also improve summoned monsters? I believe so. If that's the case, you may be well served by depending on even the meekest of minions to get flattened for you while you plunk away with arrows and spells. Problem: It's hard to summon consistently without burning all your energy. It's also hard to summon in a way that isn't absolutely useless, because the AI is not interested in saving your hide as much as dealing damage. Problem 2: This really doesn't help with archers shooting you. —Alorael, who must now consider the wisdom of an entire party of glass cannons. Attract as few enemies as possible, throw everything into killing them, and then run to the nearest town. That still doesn't solve all the problems and doesn't sound like much fun, but it certainly seems more plausible than going toe to toe with things that make you go squish. Posts: 14579 \| Registered: Saturday, December 1 2001 08:00
Avernum, Avernum, 1, 2, 3.... in General
Or else o'erleap. Law Bringer Member # 335	written Tuesday, December 13 2005 19:06 Profile Homepage #22 You hate Spiderweb reflexively, TM. The Cult of the Sacred Item is genuinely funny, and the ToM disaster is at least a meaningful event in Avernum. Only the murders shine by contrast to the rest of the game and for no other reason. —Alorael, who means reflexively as in by reflex and without conscious thought, not as in TM is in fact Spiderweb and hating himself. In case that wasn't clear. Posts: 14579 \| Registered: Saturday, December 1 2001 08:00
some suggestions after playing a bit. in Avernum 4
Or else o'erleap. Law Bringer Member # 335	written Tuesday, December 13 2005 16:24 Profile Homepage #7 I liked it, but notice that if monsters are on hills and their letters overlap, pressing B can in fact target or untarget A and do nothing to B. Jeff programmed it to simulate clicking, which makes absolutely no sense. —Alorael, who missed targeting by letter only a little bit. He has bad memories of accidentally pressing the wrong buttons and wasting powerful spells on inconsequential foes, or more direly wasting healing on the healthy while leaving someone to die a painful death. Posts: 14579 \| Registered: Saturday, December 1 2001 08:00
Mac emulators? in Avernum 4
Or else o'erleap. Law Bringer Member # 335	written Tuesday, December 13 2005 16:17 Profile Homepage #16 Just about every company but Spiderweb has for years released for PC first and Mac second. Some are moving to simultaneous releases now, but there are still a large number of games available only for PC. I don't mind myself so much, but poking fun at the PC users who for once echo the Mac users lament is, well, fun! —Alorael, who knows why Jeff doesn't release simultaneously. As soon as he has something finished, it doesn't do him any good not to sell it. More money sooner is a good thing, and releases before Christmas are considered good, apparently. He probably doesn't program in a cross-platform compatible way because he isn't used to it and he's a man of habit. Posts: 14579 \| Registered: Saturday, December 1 2001 08:00
What games? in General
Or else o'erleap. Law Bringer Member # 335	written Tuesday, December 13 2005 16:10 Profile Homepage #26 I like Nova more than its two prequels myself, and it was the only one ported to Windows. —Alorael, whose first game on a PC was a black and white Breakout-like game (Brickles?) His first true addiction was Loom, which wasn't much of an addiction because the game can be finished in a few hours. The first game he downloaded, which is still on his hard disk and regularly played more than a decade and three computers later, was Angband. Posts: 14579 \| Registered: Saturday, December 1 2001 08:00
Avernum, Avernum, 1, 2, 3.... in General
Or else o'erleap. Law Bringer Member # 335	written Tuesday, December 13 2005 16:03 Profile Homepage #20 Not exactly. Avernum just wants the right to reconnect with the surface. The disasters on the surface are the vahnatai response to the Empire's actions before and during A2. If your party in A3 were a group of surface adventurers from a backwater like southwestern Valorim, the game would be almost entirely unchanged. —Alorael, who doesn't like A3's plot for that reason among others. The surface is an absolutely typical and unexciting fantasy world. Avernum is where things are different and exciting, and Avernum plays little role in A3. Incidentally, the events in Avernum, like the Formello murders, the ToM disaster, and the Cult of the Sacred Item, are all fun and interesting. Posts: 14579 \| Registered: Saturday, December 1 2001 08:00
some suggestions after playing a bit. in Avernum 4
Or else o'erleap. Law Bringer Member # 335	written Tuesday, December 13 2005 12:45 Profile Homepage #5 It works with any letter A through L. Those correspond to the 12 slots on the ground from which you can get stuff. When you press one of the letters, a ground slot is selected, and if you have an item selected the item is dropped. If you don't, an item in that slot is picked up. —Alorael, who is just glad to see that pressing A with an item selected doesn't swap it with the item in the A slot. That would imply that pressing A is the same as clicking the A slot, like targeting in A1-3, and that design was always singularly nonsensical. Posts: 14579 \| Registered: Saturday, December 1 2001 08:00
Reactions - SPOILERS in Avernum 4
Or else o'erleap. Law Bringer Member # 335	written Tuesday, December 13 2005 12:41 Profile Homepage #21 The Radiant Soulblade wasn't there on my first time through either. A Venemous Blade was available at the very end of the game, and I used it. Why? It did less damage than acid, but the acid from the Jade Halberd and the Oozing Sword didn't stack. Poison and acid did. —Alorael, who had the Emerald Chestguard before he had any other plate armor and the Oozing Sword before any other magical sword as well. It seems that loot may have been placed in the wrong order. He also still can't figure out why Blessed Platemail is more encumbering than the non-blessed version. Posts: 14579 \| Registered: Saturday, December 1 2001 08:00
Mac emulators? in Avernum 4
Or else o'erleap. Law Bringer Member # 335	written Tuesday, December 13 2005 11:26 Profile Homepage #8 It works decently on a 450 Mhz G4 with 192 MB RAM. —Alorael, who can't understand spending money on a new (old) computer to play A4 a month or two early. Buying Macs and playing A4 are all well and good, but shouldn't there be a limit somewhere? Posts: 14579 \| Registered: Saturday, December 1 2001 08:00
Sci-Fi and fantasy authors... in General
Or else o'erleap. Law Bringer Member # 335	written Tuesday, December 13 2005 11:21 Profile Homepage #67 I've only read Moon's fantasy (The Deed of Paksenarrion and The Legacy of Gird. The former might be my favorite Tolkien-based fantasy, mostly because the Tolkien elements don't beat you over the head because while there are elves and dwarves, they're mostly tangential to the story. Moon's military background also comes through rather strongly. As Prem says, the first book is the best and the last the worst, although they're all good. The Legacy of Gird was a let-down, and I'll leave it at that. The Speed of Dark isn't really sci-fi or fantasy. It's set in the near future and it's about autism. It's gotten rave reviews, but it just didn't quite sound right, and its conclusions irked me greatly. Speaking of Tolkien adaptations, I think I'll bring up Dennis L. McKiernan, who has by far the most unabashed Tolkien plagiarism I've ever seen. I would go so far as to say that the only reason to read his books is a desire to read something like what Tolkien might write if he wrote more. McKiernan even emulates Tolkien's style to a degree, but he's simply not as good a writer as Tolkien, obviously not as much of a world builder (although he does try), and I found the result more frustrating for its failures than entertaining for its successes. —Alorael, who may have to find some of Moon's sci-fi and give it a read. From reviews it sounds vaguely Bujold-esque. Posts: 14579 \| Registered: Saturday, December 1 2001 08:00
ETA on windows version? in Avernum 4
Or else o'erleap. Law Bringer Member # 335	written Tuesday, December 13 2005 11:14 Profile Homepage #9 Because the Geneforge graphics are more cutting-edge, and as long as he was adapting the Geneforge engine he decided to keep as much as possible, which included the graphics. —Alorael, who isn't entirely convinced by that 70%. A4 is very clearly built on the Geneforge engine, and it was even more obvious during testing. Yes, there are large changes, maybe even 70% changes, but that 30% is a very important 30%. Posts: 14579 \| Registered: Saturday, December 1 2001 08:00
Avernum, Avernum, 1, 2, 3.... in General
Or else o'erleap. Law Bringer Member # 335	written Tuesday, December 13 2005 11:11 Profile Homepage #18 The November Sadness Sale is definitely annual. The other sale or sales appear sometime on the calendar. It may regularly be in April, but it's not officially tied to April. —Alorael, who gives CPeters credit for pointing out the power balance, which is something he hasn't thought about before. A2 is the game in which Avernum feels like it's on the verge of collapse. A1 involves major threats, but none are immediately obvious and visible, and it seems like Avernum could could exist in the status quo indefinitely. A3 barely involves Avernum at all. Posts: 14579 \| Registered: Saturday, December 1 2001 08:00
The Worst Game Ever in General
Or else o'erleap. Law Bringer Member # 335	written Tuesday, December 13 2005 11:06 Profile Homepage #46 quote: Originally written by Eldibs: They do have better graphics and stories than most adventure games, but not better puzzles. They have harder puzzles, but not better. Besides, it takes more than that to make a game. It has to come together well too. And I do like adventure games. Myst's puzzles are actually ingenious aside from being atrociously difficult. And Myst "comes together" better than just about any other game I can think of. Half-Life is most definitely included. quote: They have suspense, government conspiracies, alien takeovers, and plenty of violent interaction with said aliens. And all story elements are handled in real time, none of that cutscene crap. Half-Life has an absolutely standard plot that's simply realized well enough to make it meaningful instead of ludicrous. Myst has a story all its own and an ambience to go with it. —Alorael, who will run into all the "interactive movie hatred" by calling Myst an interactive movie, but that's what it is. In the same way, Half-Life is, at its core, a game where you shoot things. It's all in the details, and both games have them in abundance. Myst's details just appeal more to a different kind of person than Half-Life's. Posts: 14579 \| Registered: Saturday, December 1 2001 08:00
Our Anthem in Richard White Games
Or else o'erleap. Law Bringer Member # 335	written Tuesday, December 13 2005 10:59 Profile Homepage #5 Our anthem is not Swedish, broken or otherwise. In an ideal world our anthem would be in Interlingua, but in this one we'll settle for English as the only known language of our Lord and Programmer. More importantly, I can produce a recording of "Rage Polar Bear" if someone can produce or recommend hosting. —Alorael, who bestows great honor upon onlooker defined by, then related to burglar. Posts: 14579 \| Registered: Saturday, December 1 2001 08:00
So Giant Slimes. in Avernum 4
Or else o'erleap. Law Bringer Member # 335	written Monday, December 12 2005 21:17 Profile Homepage #2 It's pretty close to the center of the sewers under Silvar. I think you need the sewer keys from the queen of the slums, whatever her name is. —Alorael, who had no trouble encountering the slime at all. In fact, he wasn't quite intending to. Posts: 14579 \| Registered: Saturday, December 1 2001 08:00
Our Anthem in Richard White Games
Or else o'erleap. Law Bringer Member # 335	written Monday, December 12 2005 21:14 Profile Homepage #0 Curse beyond hesitates, or tenor from ballerina reach an understanding with tomato around squid. If chess baord of bestow great honor upon onlooker defined by, then related to burglar flies into a rage polar bear inside demon, living with tabloid, and cyprus mulch toward are what made American great! This seems like random gibberish, as well it might. But no, it is actually lyrics. Lyrics of a symphony. While it is not our symphony, precisely, I am ready to claim that the composer was divinely inspired and that his work belongs to the cult. —Alorael, who can think of no more fitting hymn. Of turned quorum jaggedly the! Posts: 14579 \| Registered: Saturday, December 1 2001 08:00
The Worst Game Ever in General
Or else o'erleap. Law Bringer Member # 335	written Monday, December 12 2005 20:51 Profile Homepage #34 Myst is pared down in that there are puzzles, environment, and story. There's no dialogue. There's barely speech. (I've heard that it changed in later games.) There aren't items to be picked up and used in clever ways (as much as I love Monkey Island, the simplicity is nice). It's truly just pointing and clicking. —Alorael, who won't call anything about the puzzles pared. They are evil. They break brains for breakfast and crush souls for lunch. They have made grown men cry, little children cower under beds, and kittens and puppies suffer fates never intended for kittens or puppies. Posts: 14579 \| Registered: Saturday, December 1 2001 08:00

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