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Should I buy Nethergate in Nethergate
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Law Bringer
Member # 335
 written Sunday, August 5 2007 08:00 Profile Homepage #2
You could always try the demo and decide for yourself. Everyone here will tell you to buy it, though. Nethergate certainly has the strongest plot of any Spiderweb game, and there's just something appealing about playing naked guys with blue spiked hair and pointy weapons.

—Alorael, who thinks playing armored, disciplined, unnecessarily violent guys with pointy weapons is pretty good too.
Posts: 14579 | Registered: Saturday, December 1 2001 08:00
A3 Mystery Island in The Avernum Trilogy
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Law Bringer
Member # 335
 written Sunday, August 5 2007 00:03 Profile Homepage #8
Sulfras has an unreachable chamber as well.

—Alorael, who supposes they're also reachable with the right meta-tools. There's nothing there, though, because getting in is cheating.
Posts: 14579 | Registered: Saturday, December 1 2001 08:00
Fat Attack? in General
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Law Bringer
Member # 335
 written Saturday, August 4 2007 20:07 Profile Homepage #30
Dental fluorosis isn't exactly reduction in tooth growth, it's extremely rare, and it's not necessarily due to fluoride in water. Fuoride is a toxin in high enough quantities, but so is pure water. Water fluoride concentrations have no credibly be shown to be dangerous. Fearmongering isn't research.

If you were "subjected to large quantities" of fluoride, maybe that was a problem. Municipal water doesn't have "high quantities." It has minute quantities.

Food is mainly irradiated to sterilize it. The scientific majority concludes that it's safe. There's a minority opinion that dissents, but there's always a minority opinion. Chemicals are added for too many reasons to enumerate, and some are better than others. Nobody is deliberately making food toxic.

Aspartame has potential links to several cancers, but brain tumors have been mostly ruled out. There's nothing clear about the risks of aspartame, but steering clear of it isn't a bad idea. Unfortunately, calories are also a known cause of many problems. Pick your poison.

There is no link between carbonation and cancer. There is no strong link between carbonation and any harm. Fizz paranoia is periodic and baseless.

quote:
Don't tell me that politicians are not concerned about it, are they?
If they are not then i will surely scream.
If politicians panicked about everything that panicked some group of citizens, they would get nothing done. These are all matters for scientific investigation, and investigation has not shown harm.

Plenty of tropical and equatorial cultures have viewed obesity as a sign of wealth, power, and so on. Nobody has needed excess weight since the invention of clothing, but having more than enough food is a powerful status symbol in societies that suffer form frequent lack of food.

—Alorael, who recommends that you check your facts more often before buying into claims of danger. It's not possible ot live a risk-free life, and it's much easier than everyone is led to believe to live a life of acceptable risk.
Posts: 14579 | Registered: Saturday, December 1 2001 08:00
Social Degradation and Religious Decay (Split from "Life on Europa") in General
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Law Bringer
Member # 335
 written Saturday, August 4 2007 19:38 Profile Homepage #380
Let's go through the prophecies that foresaw Jesus:

Isaiah's Suffering Servant: A man is opressed, suffers, and dies for our sins. Jesus can be seen as a fulfillment of this prophecy, but the only fact attested and accepted aside from Gospels is that Jesus was crucified. So were a lot of people. Any one of them could have become the focus of a religion claiming their death was punishment for our sins. No prediction here.

Isaiah 9: Prophetic nonsense-babble.

Zechariah 12: Also general. It could describe anyone dead of a stabbing, crucifiction, impalement, or even shooting. I'd consider it a subset of the Suffering Servant, which doesn't convince me.

Zechariah 13: Wounds in hands? That's more specific, but still anyone crucified. And Jesus wasn't crucified "in the house of [his] friends."

Daniel 9: The periods of time aren't accounted for, the flood isn't accounted for, and sacrifices weren't ended for half the week.

Hosea 11: Seems to apply to Moses as well as Jesus. Or better, really.

—Alorael, who could keep going. It's very clear that Jesus can be fitted into prophecies, but the problems of fulfilling general prophecies has already been noted. Just look into any Jewish Biblical scholarship for very cogent differing opinions.
Posts: 14579 | Registered: Saturday, December 1 2001 08:00
Harry Potter in General
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Law Bringer
Member # 335
 written Saturday, August 4 2007 19:18 Profile Homepage #98
I get Rome. Aran can have Avignon.

—Alorael, who knows the true way and will of Richard White six ways from what will be two Wednesdays ago next Friday. Aran can barely even handle seventeen non-Euclidean dimensions.
Posts: 14579 | Registered: Saturday, December 1 2001 08:00
Harry Potter in General
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Law Bringer
Member # 335
 written Saturday, August 4 2007 08:17 Profile Homepage #93
Discussion of illegal activities is against the CoC. Shame on you, Aran.

—Alorael, who is truly disappointed by this flagrant display of disregard for the fundamental rules of Spiderweb. Is there no sense of proportion here?
Posts: 14579 | Registered: Saturday, December 1 2001 08:00
Harry Potter in General
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Law Bringer
Member # 335
 written Friday, August 3 2007 22:21 Profile Homepage #91
Oops.

—Alorael, who has only one solution to accidental over[ILLEGAL ACTIVITY]. That solution is intentional over[ILLEGAL ACTIVITY]. Huzzah!

[ Saturday, August 04, 2007 01:50: Message edited by: jg.faust ]
Posts: 14579 | Registered: Saturday, December 1 2001 08:00
What sound does a Swedish lightsaber make? in Avernum 4
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Law Bringer
Member # 335
 written Thursday, August 2 2007 18:54 Profile Homepage #1
He gets credit in the games that use his music, too.

—Alorael, who is a fan of Bjørn. His music is good, but his name is better.
Posts: 14579 | Registered: Saturday, December 1 2001 08:00
Fat Attack? in General
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Law Bringer
Member # 335
 written Thursday, August 2 2007 12:58 Profile Homepage #25
quote:
Originally written by Thuryl:

quote:
Originally written by The peanut walks by night.:

That's not your original question. You asked if the shows discriminate. No, they don't.
Um, fat people are let on the show and thin people aren't. That's discrimination. Whether it's justifiable discrimination is a separate question.
The shows don't seem to uniquely encourage prejudice against the overweight. Happy now?

—Alorael, who can easily see that the answer will be no. Encouraging prejudice is to be encouraged, of course! Ignorance is strength!
Posts: 14579 | Registered: Saturday, December 1 2001 08:00
Fat Attack? in General
Or else o'erleap.
Law Bringer
Member # 335
 written Wednesday, August 1 2007 19:43 Profile Homepage #21
That's not your original question. You asked if the shows discriminate. No, they don't. Are the useful in the "war on obesity," which will hopefully be more successful than America's other wars? Probably not very. Reality TV is, first and foremost, entertainment. This entertainment may benefit the participants (or maybe not) and it may benefit viewers (probably not, though). It doesn't hurt anyone.

—Alorael, who thinks there is a very simple way to lose weight: eat slightly less and exercise slightly more. Yes, going for a ten minute walk is exercise. This is not a good way to lose weight fast, but it's a good way to lose a little bit of weight steadily and not get it back.
Posts: 14579 | Registered: Saturday, December 1 2001 08:00
Fat Attack? in General
Or else o'erleap.
Law Bringer
Member # 335
 written Tuesday, July 31 2007 16:58 Profile Homepage #4
I know nothing about these shows (or any other reality TV shows, or pretty much any shows) besides what I read. I'm not qualified to judge.

That said, while I sympathize with the stigmatization of obesity, being overweight is not good. Bad genes or not, trying to get rid of extra pounds is a good idea. Agonizing over it isn't, but doing something is.

—Alorael, who recently lost a great deal of weight. Unfortunately, he lost his keys as well. He found them both in the same place, and now he's back in square one.
Posts: 14579 | Registered: Saturday, December 1 2001 08:00
Social Degradation and Religious Decay (Split from "Life on Europa") in General
Or else o'erleap.
Law Bringer
Member # 335
 written Monday, July 30 2007 13:38 Profile Homepage #373
Responding with links!

quote:
Originally written by Thuryl:

That's kinda hard to do, since most prophecies tend not to come with time limits
Time is not the only limit. Eschaton is approaching fast! Or not. I'm holding out hope that Kurzweil is right and two popes will last us a good long while.

quote:
Originally written by Drew:

What's the incentive to be Christian and perky? All the "good things" come when you die.
Maybe not. Reason triumphs once again!

[Edit: Still not good at this tags thing.]

—Alorael, who is pretty sure that everything will work out for the best in the end as long as he has his potato.

[ Monday, July 30, 2007 13:39: Message edited by: Gravitas ]
Posts: 14579 | Registered: Saturday, December 1 2001 08:00
im sorry spidweb team but.... in Avernum 4
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Law Bringer
Member # 335
 written Sunday, July 29 2007 14:12 Profile Homepage #10
Luckily for you, A5 won't use the Geneforge combat system. In fact, Geneforge 4 doesn't use the Geneforge combat system.

—Alorael, who can't say the new system is identical to Avernum's. Being able to attack with 1 AP makes all the difference, though. Starting with more movement is a good change, too.
Posts: 14579 | Registered: Saturday, December 1 2001 08:00
Avernum 5, June Update in Avernum 4
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Law Bringer
Member # 335
 written Sunday, July 29 2007 12:01 Profile Homepage #97
Vahnatai PCs are suggested regularly. Jeff maintains that the vahnatai are supposed to be mysterious and alien, and playing as them would ruin that.

—Alorael, who is okay with that. In fact, given how much the games assume humanity, he thinks maybe you should be forced to play as humans. Nephils and sliths aren't terribly different except for a handful of dialogues and min/maxing.
Posts: 14579 | Registered: Saturday, December 1 2001 08:00
Social Degradation and Religious Decay (Split from "Life on Europa") in General
Or else o'erleap.
Law Bringer
Member # 335
 written Friday, July 27 2007 13:52 Profile Homepage #348
Islam is from the early 7th century, which places it a ways after Christianity and long after the origin of Judaism. Buddhism and Jainism both date back to around 500 years before Christianity. Proto-Hinduism dates back to around eight millenia ago.

—Alorael, who has no argument with God having every right to do as he pleases. Judging his actions as good or evil has to be done personally, though. All morals are personal. Nobody has access to a universal moral code, so everyone has to make do with what they have.
Posts: 14579 | Registered: Saturday, December 1 2001 08:00
Any robot games in the future? in General
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Law Bringer
Member # 335
 written Friday, July 27 2007 13:36 Profile Homepage #7
Actually, Jeff has strongly hinted that the game will include robots. They'll act out the game for you, so you don't need a monitor at all.

—Alorael, who imagines that having robots throwing fireballs in your living room will make players much more respectful around wizards. An upsurge in Anama membership is quite possible.
Posts: 14579 | Registered: Saturday, December 1 2001 08:00
Replayability / Expandability? in Nethergate
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Law Bringer
Member # 335
 written Friday, July 27 2007 13:31 Profile Homepage #8
The Geneforges, Nethergate, and A4 all have engines different enough from A1-3 and BoA that it's not really feasible to copy them to BoA, although Nethergate would be the easiest. There might be a few technical challenges in trying to script one of the Avernums for BoA, but it's almost certainly possible. The real barrier is the workload and the fact that it's illegal: Jeff sells the games, and he'd be unhappy if they came free with BoA.

Storylines of similar quality (superior quality, often) are quite doable and indeed have been done in both BoE and BoA. BoE has more immense scenarios than BoA, but there are hefty offerings for both.

—Alorael, who can still point out that Stareye's scenario "At the Gallows" has been called Exile 4 since long before Avernum 4 was even a glimmer in the back of Jeff's mind.
Posts: 14579 | Registered: Saturday, December 1 2001 08:00
Life on Europa in General
Or else o'erleap.
Law Bringer
Member # 335
 written Friday, July 27 2007 13:26 Profile Homepage #69
"Stars are there because life is out there and needs stellar energy."

Compare with:

"There is life out there because there are stars that provide the energy to support it.

—Alorael, who think that just about sums up the failure to see eye to eye, or teleology to non-teleology.
Posts: 14579 | Registered: Saturday, December 1 2001 08:00
Any robot games in the future? in General
Or else o'erleap.
Law Bringer
Member # 335
 written Thursday, July 26 2007 19:13 Profile Homepage #1
Well... probably not. That seems a little farther from his base games than he's likely to go. But anything's possible!

—Alorael, who definitely wouldn't count on Jeff saying anything about it yet. He mostly doesn't read this section of the boards, or at least doesn't comment on them. Even if he does see this, he's unlikely to commend on his next game yet. And even if he feels like it, he probably hasn't done all that much work on a game that's several games away.
Posts: 14579 | Registered: Saturday, December 1 2001 08:00
Replayability / Expandability? in Nethergate
Or else o'erleap.
Law Bringer
Member # 335
 written Thursday, July 26 2007 19:08 Profile Homepage #5
Avernum's main storyline takes longer than Nethergate's, but A4 is widely recognized here as one of the weaker stories and Nethergate is pretty universally hailed as the best. Charging straight through both sides of the story probably won't take you nearly 100 hours. Side quests add a lot, but many are the same for both sides.

I've enjoyed playing and replaying Nethergate with different parties, but my parties tend to converge in the end. A4 makes up for a weaker plot with a much more min-maxable and complicated set of monsters and parties, so you can keep yourself entertained much longer by the mechanics there.

If you want a better game, go with Nethergate. If you want better combat, go with A4. If you want length, it's really a toss-up. If you want expandability (and more plots, and ultimately more length, and more innovation, and everything) get a Blades game.

—Alorael, who recommends finishing the Nethergate and A4 demos. You really get a sense of how the games go from it. Don't bother with the BoE/A demos, though, except to test the engine. The demo scenario isn't very good.
Posts: 14579 | Registered: Saturday, December 1 2001 08:00
Life on Europa in General
Or else o'erleap.
Law Bringer
Member # 335
 written Thursday, July 26 2007 13:34 Profile Homepage #65
quote:
Originally written by Stillness:

Maybe some are as you said - content to be born, experience joy along with pain, and die without wondering about purpose. I suspect they’re few if any. I also wonder how “perfectly happy” such a person would be. But, I’m open to the possibility that I’m wrong. That is why I asked why people are hopeful.
Of course not many people are completely devoid of philosophical curiosity. Philosophy doesn't have to be teleology, though. I think "what can be done with this?" is just as satisfying a question as "why is this here?" when you come down to it. And the former leads to action, too!

—Alorael, who wonders if religious and non-religious mindsets are, in fact, unable to fully comprehend each other. VMAT2 and other potential religion genes could make people think very, very differently.
Posts: 14579 | Registered: Saturday, December 1 2001 08:00
Social Degradation and Religious Decay (Split from "Life on Europa") in General
Or else o'erleap.
Law Bringer
Member # 335
 written Thursday, July 26 2007 13:24 Profile Homepage #316
quote:
Originally written by Stillness:

Others, including the creation itself, may have opinions about whether or not the creation is doing what they think is good, but by definition only the creator has say as to reasons for creating.
Exactly! God can decide whether or not we're doing as he wishes. It's his call whether the universe is working or not. That has nothing to do with good and evil. Going along with the creator's plan is good because it is the creator's plan? That's circular. Morality therefore has to be either external or entirely subjective. Calling God good because he says he's good and he would know is a really useless way of determining good.

—Alorael, who likes to think of God as a kind of cosmic parent. Sure, he probably has ideas about what's good and what's not. His children probably disappoint him like all children disappoint their parents on occasion. But if nobody can surprise God with a superlative achievement beyond what he envisioned, life is a hollow joke based on varying degrees of failure.
Posts: 14579 | Registered: Saturday, December 1 2001 08:00
Defeating the Undefeatable in The Exile Trilogy
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Law Bringer
Member # 335
 written Thursday, July 26 2007 12:58 Profile Homepage #2
I thought only Rentar-Ihrno is supposed to be truly unbeatable. Most of the rest just cause instantaneous death if you harm them. Like Erika if you have no Cooling Amulets, Prazac, and the entire population of Fort Emergence.

—Alorael, who actually remembers Prazac being rather fragile. It's a small comfort when you get smacked down by an instant death node for doing the deed. At least in E1 you get a chance at a getaway with enough brooches.
Posts: 14579 | Registered: Saturday, December 1 2001 08:00

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