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Avernum IV in General
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Law Bringer
Member # 335
 written Friday, September 23 2005 10:15 Profile Homepage #3
This has come up and been, if not shot down, then at least called into question before.

—Alorael, who recommends continuing in the existing thread.
Posts: 14579 | Registered: Saturday, December 1 2001 08:00
MMMMM in General
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Law Bringer
Member # 335
 written Thursday, September 22 2005 16:50 Profile Homepage #273
Did they stop teaching self-flagellation technique? In my day we all had to learn how to make ourselves scream for mercy and then not give it.

—Alorael, who blames such extreme measures for his occasional signaturial lapses.
Posts: 14579 | Registered: Saturday, December 1 2001 08:00
MMMMM in General
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Law Bringer
Member # 335
 written Thursday, September 22 2005 14:11 Profile Homepage #268
If seizures don't cause heart problems, electrically induced seizures probably don't either. Strong enough convulsions can also cause fractures too, which pose their own problems.

ECT didn't start painlessly. In fact, it started horrifically in a way that puts most of Thuryl's pseudomedicine to shame. It was probably most effective as a threat: don't act psychotic in the ward or you'll be sent into grotesque convulsions as they fry your brains, and you might break some bones too!

The difference is that most of the negatives can be controlled, and there actually is a benefit.

[Edit: Look, if you typed out a sig almsot ten thuosand times, youd' make a few mistakes to.]

—Alorael, who would like to point out that the Surgeon General does not recommend causing epilepsy to limit schizophrenia. Just, you know, in case you were wondering.

[ Thursday, September 22, 2005 16:48: Message edited by: Question Most Authority ]
Posts: 14579 | Registered: Saturday, December 1 2001 08:00
MMMMM in General
Or else o'erleap.
Law Bringer
Member # 335
 written Thursday, September 22 2005 08:25 Profile Homepage #265
quote:
Originally written by Garrison:

Obviously ECT is not widely considered to be the most humane or free of side effects method, but it has been proven to have some success.
Actually, it is widely, but not uncontestedly, considered free of major negative side effects in the medical profession. The popular view is inaccurate. I don't think anyone likes the procedure, but there's nothing wrong with it. It is perfectly humane, although certainly a treatment to be chosen only when others fail.

quote:
The electric chair and its characteristic convulsions might make this therapy seem much more dangerous than it is. Of course, no one with heart problems and depression should seek this therapy.
Defibrillators, ECT, and the electric chair have nothing in common besides running current through a human. I don't know if enough current reaches the heart, or enough current-induced signalling, to cause problems. Do seizures commonly cause death in those with heart conditions?

quote:
I know that in the past ECT had to be done to the extent of causing involuntary muscle spasms, but I do not know whether that is still thought to be necessary today. ECT, like any other non-lethal electrical or physical shock, does not consistently remove long term memories, but it does interrupt short term memory. Brain cells do die, but being shocked into happiness is certainly an fascinating at the very least.
ECT causes grand mal seizure, which causes muscle spasms. Today paralytics are given to prevent actual convulsion, as they could cause injury in the patient and have absolutely no benefit. It isn't shocked into happiness, either. Why it works isn't known, but it definitely alleviates depression and a few other conditions, mostly in the short term.

—Alorael, who enjoys riding his pro-ECT hobbyhorse. Prove that it's harmful and he'll give it up.
Posts: 14579 | Registered: Saturday, December 1 2001 08:00
Avernum 4? in General
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Law Bringer
Member # 335
 written Wednesday, September 21 2005 17:49 Profile Homepage #258
Please examine Vyvnas-Bok in E2/A2 and E3/A3, then repeat that statement.

—Alorael, who would say that taking the Crystal Souls is closer to blasphemy than kidnapping. The Crystal Souls aren't just vahnatai who are blue and contain more silicon. They're quasi-divine.
Posts: 14579 | Registered: Saturday, December 1 2001 08:00
uh oh, mayor and town got killed in The Avernum Trilogy
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Law Bringer
Member # 335
 written Wednesday, September 21 2005 17:46 Profile Homepage #1
Too much time passed. If the troglos are around long enough, Aminro gets destroyed. You just happened to be a little too late in stopping them.

—Alorael, who can only warn that the same thing will happen with all of the plagues. If its any consolation, you're not missing anything important.
Posts: 14579 | Registered: Saturday, December 1 2001 08:00
Those who now used cars. in General
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Law Bringer
Member # 335
 written Wednesday, September 21 2005 17:45 Profile Homepage #3
I've never had or heard of insurance paying the cost of repair or replacement, especially with totalled cars. A $300 out of pocket difference is actually a fairly good deal.

—Alorael, who wonders how the insurance would respond to documentation of your having paid the full price two weeks ago. He doesn't suppose it's good enough evidence to hold up, as the insurance can just claim you got a bad deal, but it's evidence.
Posts: 14579 | Registered: Saturday, December 1 2001 08:00
MMMMM in General
Or else o'erleap.
Law Bringer
Member # 335
 written Wednesday, September 21 2005 11:22 Profile Homepage #240
A defibrillator delivers an electric shock to the heart. ECT involves delivering voltage to the brain. The two are not the same. One is jolting a muscle into proper activity, and the other is the deliberate creation of a grand mal seizure.

—Alorael, who happens to find the term "grand mal seizure" very funny. Does it need to be multilingual? Can it be called a "big, bad seizure" instead?
Posts: 14579 | Registered: Saturday, December 1 2001 08:00
MMMMM in General
Or else o'erleap.
Law Bringer
Member # 335
 written Wednesday, September 21 2005 07:28 Profile Homepage #234
Oddly enough, you may think that electroshock therapy, also called electroconvulsive therapy or ECT, belongs on Thuryl's moniker list. Not so, however. It is still very much in use for certain disorders inlcuding depression, and the results are quite positive. Nobody knows why, exactly, but there are definite gains and, barring the inevitable unverified reports of disaster, only minor and often temporary negative side effects.

On the bright side, modern anesthesia, electrical equipment, and paralytics have rendered ECT an outpatient procedure that takes only minutes and causes neither psychological trauma nor physical damage.

—Alorael, who compares ECT to mallet therapy with results. Sure, it may seem like a bad idea to zap brains, but sometimes a kickstart seems to be needed.
Posts: 14579 | Registered: Saturday, December 1 2001 08:00
Avernum 4? in General
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Law Bringer
Member # 335
 written Tuesday, September 20 2005 18:21 Profile Homepage #251
Evil? Not exactly. Opposed to the Empire and to any Avernites who stand in the way? Yes.

Also keep in mind that it was only one clan, and not even all of that clan. Bon-Ihrno surely wasn't absolutely alone in his views.

—Alorael, who doesn't think the vahnatai are so evil by their standards. The Empire committed an unthinkable crime and deserved unthinkable punishment. Not nice, no, but who's to say it's evil? Where's your sense of moral relativism?
Posts: 14579 | Registered: Saturday, December 1 2001 08:00
Avernum 4? in General
Or else o'erleap.
Law Bringer
Member # 335
 written Tuesday, September 20 2005 09:11 Profile Homepage #242
Rentar-Ihrno is very much still alive at the end of A3, and I will be very disappointed if she doesn't appear. I'll be even more disappointed if she's the big villain, but she's important enough to Avernum that she deserves a cameo.

—Alorael, who meant that Exile is the past in Spiderweb's plans. Don't expect Jeff to backtrack. Ever. Even as far as fixing bugs in Blades.
Posts: 14579 | Registered: Saturday, December 1 2001 08:00
iCome, iSpam, iWin in General
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Law Bringer
Member # 335
 written Tuesday, September 20 2005 09:08 Profile Homepage #42
It's no great accomplishment while lurking. End up in the top 10, or even then top 20 with all your posts here and you'll deserve congratulations.

—Alorael, who may have to try sometime. It will involve some cheating, though.
Posts: 14579 | Registered: Saturday, December 1 2001 08:00
Seriously... v2.0 in General
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Law Bringer
Member # 335
 written Tuesday, September 20 2005 09:03 Profile Homepage #15
quote:
Originally written by AxB:

Coming from a guy that has used PC's his entire life, I find the interface of Macs to be frustrating, the compatibility limited, and the things that it is good for, can be duplicated on other systems, (though not always windows).
The interface frustrations are a matter of familiarty. As a Mac user I find Windows frustrating, counterintuitive, and glitchy. Everything I need to do can be done on a Mac, and usually better. The major exception is games, many of which are released only for PC.

Basically, Mac or Windows (or Linux) is a matter of choice.

—Alorael, who will thank everyone for not jumping on the bandwagon and starting a Mac. vs. PC argument.
Posts: 14579 | Registered: Saturday, December 1 2001 08:00
Ok, help me start out... in General
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Law Bringer
Member # 335
 written Monday, September 19 2005 18:24 Profile Homepage #10
None of the games can be played in windowed mode that I know of, but you can easily switch out on a Mac. I don't know about PCs.

All the games include a manual in an electronic format with the game, but you don't really need to read it to understand most skills and spells.

—Alorael, who prefers Avernum to Exile and Geneforge and recommends starting with A1 because the trilogy makes slightly more sense in order. Download a whole bunch of demos and find your own preferences, though!
Posts: 14579 | Registered: Saturday, December 1 2001 08:00
iCome, iSpam, iWin in General
Or else o'erleap.
Law Bringer
Member # 335
 written Monday, September 19 2005 12:10 Profile Homepage #31
That's it. I'm going to have to redouble my post rate to reclaim the wonders of the bygone eras of postificational glory and neologism.

—Alorael, who neither can nor desires to excuse this post. Let those who oppose it feel the fear of the endless spam. lol!!!!!
Posts: 14579 | Registered: Saturday, December 1 2001 08:00
Avernum 4? in General
Or else o'erleap.
Law Bringer
Member # 335
 written Monday, September 19 2005 12:05 Profile Homepage #233
Exile: Unlikely bordering on unthinkable. Exile is the past. Shiny new engines are the future, for better or for worse. Some love for BoE would be even better.

Vahnatai: Please, no. A3 has enough vahnatai carnage fun.

—ALorael, who would rather face a plague of goblins. Those goblins can be deadly, you know.
Posts: 14579 | Registered: Saturday, December 1 2001 08:00
MMMMM in General
Or else o'erleap.
Law Bringer
Member # 335
 written Monday, September 19 2005 07:30 Profile Homepage #213
Semmelweis didn't recommend washing with soap and water, though. He prescribed rinses with a rather caustic chlorinated lime solution. If I were one of his students, I would have protested that the man was crazy too.

The other interesting fact is that the hospital at which Semmelweis worked had two obstetrical clinics, one staffed mostly by the aforementioned medical students and one staffed by midwives. The midwives had a neonatal mortality rate that was something like 10% of that of the students'. Nobody ever questioned the need for doctors.

—Alorael, who wants to know the effects of chemically intriguing solutions on babies. Less than puerperal fever, yes, but all that great?
Posts: 14579 | Registered: Saturday, December 1 2001 08:00
Need a new graphics engine in General
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Law Bringer
Member # 335
 written Monday, September 19 2005 07:21 Profile Homepage #22
quote:
Originally written by powerman:

And they don't review games based on what a small percentage of gamers like, they rate on what the majority enjoy.

Oh yeah, it is still pretty impressive what a small team of 3 can do ;)
And Spiderweb is a team of one with two minor assistants, actually. As a team of one, Jeff can't and doesn't try to compete with major game producing outfits. He isn't writing for the majority. He's making his games for his small niche percentage, and as I said before, trying to get out of that niche isn't necessarily going to help him. It certainly isn't going to please an apparently large portion of his current fanbase.

—Alorael, who actually enjoys reading books and playing text-based games. Next you're going to be claiming that Zork isn't a good game, and then there will be problems.
Posts: 14579 | Registered: Saturday, December 1 2001 08:00
a new threat in Richard White Games
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Law Bringer
Member # 335
 written Sunday, September 18 2005 13:36 Profile Homepage #12
Drahcir is apparently a common name in the world of internet monikers, and take a look at http://members.tripod.com/~Drahcir/! Drahcir and darkness. I rest my case.

—Alorael, who isn't sure how Drahcir Etihw relates to Richard Black.
Posts: 14579 | Registered: Saturday, December 1 2001 08:00
plagues and erikas tower in The Exile Trilogy
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Law Bringer
Member # 335
 written Sunday, September 18 2005 09:52 Profile Homepage #4
You can skip the troglos and giants by doing the golems, although you'll probably have to kill at least some troglos and giants to get experience to handle golems. You have to stop either the slimes or the roaches, as Drakey noted.

—Alorael, who can add that there's no way to skip any plagues. You have to either finish them or deal with the consequences of not finishing them.
Posts: 14579 | Registered: Saturday, December 1 2001 08:00
iCome, iSpam, iWin in General
Or else o'erleap.
Law Bringer
Member # 335
 written Sunday, September 18 2005 09:29 Profile Homepage #8
The point of posting a lot is not having to click on a link to find your post ranking. See, there's a silver lining!

—Alorael, who knows almost nothing about German politics. This is yet another instance of American elitist nationalism or apathy, take your pick.
Posts: 14579 | Registered: Saturday, December 1 2001 08:00
a new threat in Richard White Games
Or else o'erleap.
Law Bringer
Member # 335
 written Saturday, September 17 2005 17:00 Profile Homepage #3
Richard Black

Quality of service? An opposite indeed!

Or, if you prefer...

richard black is a great asset to the neighborhood and to the city of lansing and is a shining
richard black is a chicago native son with the blues roots others only wish they had
richard black is a highly regarded printmaker who has made a significant contribution over the years to the arts in iowa
richard black is available for
richard black is one of the most respected cuemakers alive today and his work is flawless
richard black is a geographer whose work focuses on refugees and social
richard black is the author of the complete family guide to college financial aid
richard black is chairman of ecrm
richard black is john's father
richard black is the director
richard black is lecturer in human geography at the school of african and asian studies
richard black is the music minister at cedar lake christian assembly
richard black is a biochemistry undergraduate in his second year at the university
richard black is a general partner with opnet partners and the president and a director of luxcore
richard black is now in a new band called bourgeois pigs also featuring jake e
richard black is a managing partner of rbc capital partners technology fund
richard black is lecturer in human geography in the school of african and asian studies
richard black is director
richard black is also planning a townhome development in the benson park area
richard black is the general partner of opnet partners lp
richard black is the southwest drummer boy great
richard black is a jazzy rock number with a very tight rhythm section and flawless guitar work
richard black is holding kayak workshops at farmingdale high school pool for winter/spring 2001
richard black is a researcher at microsoft's european research centre in cambridge
richard black is the singer in that band and he's cool
richard black is also good neighbor throughout the year especially helping to shovel snow for the entire block during the winter and edge the walk for
richard black is up to these days
richard black is
richard black is not giving anything away at this stage and only names a squad to travel rather than a starting line
richard black is to name his side but it is expected that there shouldn?t be any enforced changes to the team
richard black is due for a parole hearing
richard black is now at the university of
richard black is director of the office of nuclear safety policy and standards at the us department of energy
richard black is vice
richard black is a doctor who only recently came to work at the sonderberg institute
richard black is an experience
richard black is an attorney with black & black law firm in morris

[Edit: Slash and hack?]

—Alorael, who must live in fear now. Trapped between White and Black! Two indomitable and forever opposed absolute forces for something and something else! Melodrama!

[ Saturday, September 17, 2005 17:02: Message edited by: Pi Times the Light of Heaven ]
Posts: 14579 | Registered: Saturday, December 1 2001 08:00
where is judith? in The Avernum Trilogy
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Law Bringer
Member # 335
 written Saturday, September 17 2005 16:56 Profile Homepage #1
Judith's location depends on the day. If she's not in Shayder and you head to Bavner but the date changes while you're en route, turn back around and return to Shayder. Eventually you'll catch her somewhere.

—Alorael, who doesn't think she's hidden. She's out in the open in the towns, healing the sick, spreading good cheer, &c.
Posts: 14579 | Registered: Saturday, December 1 2001 08:00
Closing doors in The Avernum Trilogy
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Law Bringer
Member # 335
 written Saturday, September 17 2005 12:19 Profile Homepage #5
If they see you, they'll go through doors to get to you. Opening a door isn't an action, though, so if you open one and see a bunch of enemies, immediately closing the door often means they'll still just stand around and wait for you to cast Beast Ceremony and use the combat-wait-attack trick.

—Alorael, who believes doors were closable in Exile as well as Avernum. If you look at a door adjacent to a party member (the active one in Exile), the door opens or closes. E1 didn't have openable or closable doors.
Posts: 14579 | Registered: Saturday, December 1 2001 08:00
A3 Windows save file please in The Avernum Trilogy
Or else o'erleap.
Law Bringer
Member # 335
 written Friday, September 16 2005 21:23 Profile Homepage #7
Erika doesn't show up at the end and doesn't blow holes through walls for you if you don't get and activate her amulets. That means she can potentially survive the end of A3.

—Alorael, who suspects that her death will be confirmed in A4. Whether or not she returns is another matter entirely.
Posts: 14579 | Registered: Saturday, December 1 2001 08:00

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