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Doesn't anyone play Geneforge I anymore? in General
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Law Bringer
Member # 335
 written Wednesday, February 28 2007 08:50 Profile Homepage #2
This topic is in Geneforge. I have no idea what you're talking about.

—Alorael, who is of course lying, as you can tell if you are reading this very post in General.
Posts: 14579 | Registered: Saturday, December 1 2001 08:00
Rotghroth in Geneforge 4: Rebellion
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Law Bringer
Member # 335
 written Wednesday, February 28 2007 08:48 Profile Homepage #82
Nalyd is stuck in the third person, Diki always has her last paragraph in the third person, and my signature is always in the third person. I'd say we're not crazy, but quite frankly I don't have the evidence to back it up.

—Alorael, who can at least claim that he gimmicked first. These things are important.
Posts: 14579 | Registered: Saturday, December 1 2001 08:00
Jeff, please respond - Magic and Avernum 5 in Avernum 4
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Law Bringer
Member # 335
 written Wednesday, February 28 2007 08:46 Profile Homepage #39
Exile 1 and Exile 2 were made by Spiderweb but distributed by Fantasoft. The exact arrangement is unknown. The two companies also have some shared graphics, but that could be either a joint purchase or non-exclusive rights to graphics they got separately.

—Alorael, who also wouldn't put it past Realmz to appropriate graphics underhandedly. While Fantasoft was (and maybe even is) apparently all legal and legitimate, its proofreading and programming raises so many questions that a few graphics accidents wouldn't be terribly surprising.
Posts: 14579 | Registered: Saturday, December 1 2001 08:00
Combat in Geneforge 4: Rebellion
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Law Bringer
Member # 335
 written Wednesday, February 28 2007 08:43 Profile Homepage #3
Don't feed the pointlessness.

—Alorael, who provides this pseudo-lock on behalf of tentacled beings of unfathomable evil. Also DV.
Posts: 14579 | Registered: Saturday, December 1 2001 08:00
Bots? in General
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Law Bringer
Member # 335
 written Tuesday, February 27 2007 23:20 Profile Homepage #73
Too many posts.

Too few words.

Too little content.

[Edit: Too many errors.]

—Alorael, who urges you to try harder. Go on, be creative. Come up with a new gimmick so brilliant it wins even Alec's gruding respect!

[ Wednesday, February 28, 2007 20:35: Message edited by: Umber and Chartreuse ]
Posts: 14579 | Registered: Saturday, December 1 2001 08:00
Hypothetical thoughts in General
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Law Bringer
Member # 335
 written Tuesday, February 27 2007 21:37 Profile Homepage #44
quote:
Originally written by Protocols of the Elders of Zion:

Point me to one effort at linguistic revival that didn't (a) owe its existence to villains and (b) failed to further segregate a trod-upon minority from the world, and I'll concede.
Your argument is circular. All linguistic revivals have had evil origins, so all linguistic revivals must originate in evil.

I'd go so far as to claim that Hebrew shows that the origins don't matter once the language takes root. I'm well aware that you're not fond of the state of Israel or its origins, but you cannot pin your objections on Hebrew.

For that matter, name a truly successful revival that isn't Hebrew. I truly don't know of any comparable situations. The closest things i can think of are various local language efforts, usually post-colonial, that meet with very limited success.

—Alorael, who wonders what you would say to Kel if his attempt were based on Esperanto rather than Latin. No written works, so no legacy of evil. Or what about Latin with all literature deliberately suppressed?

[ Tuesday, February 27, 2007 21:38: Message edited by: V. V. W. W. ]
Posts: 14579 | Registered: Saturday, December 1 2001 08:00
Serviles in Geneforge 4: Rebellion
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Law Bringer
Member # 335
 written Tuesday, February 27 2007 15:54 Profile Homepage #4
Someone will sleep with anything.

—Alorael, who just assumes that serviles and humans cannot produce offspring and slept better at night for never having considered this before.
Posts: 14579 | Registered: Saturday, December 1 2001 08:00
Rotghroth in Geneforge 4: Rebellion
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Law Bringer
Member # 335
 written Tuesday, February 27 2007 15:50 Profile Homepage #73
Cheap Jeff, rather. He doesn't make his own graphics, so more pretty pictures cost more money.

—Alorael, who means this as no slander of Spiderweb Software or any associated parties. He does, however, have to wonder if maybe a few bytes could be shaved off of download sizes by clever in-game palette swaps.
Posts: 14579 | Registered: Saturday, December 1 2001 08:00
Hypothetical thoughts in General
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Law Bringer
Member # 335
 written Tuesday, February 27 2007 15:44 Profile Homepage #37
Thuryl: If we're considering linguistic changes some kind of memetic mutation, I'd say the evidence points to them being neutral changes that are subject to drift rather than selective pressures. Every language changes, and languages that split tend to drift off in different directions arbitrarily. Revived Latin wouldn't stay much like any ancient Latin for very long, but that's not a problem. It could, of course, morph into another Romance language, which would show some kind of selective pressure, but it's not clear that it definitely would.

Alec: I don't think Latin is so deeply tied to Roman/Catholic/Medieval culture that reviving one is tantamount to reviving the other, and I'm not sure why you're so convinced it would be. Hebrew revived just fine, and while I'll acknowledge that it may have made no sense and you may call Israel evil incarnate all you want, there is nothing wrong with the modern language itself. I don't see why Latin couldn't take a similar path if anyone had the time, resources, and people to do it.

—Alorael, who actually does believe in a kind of evolution of language. Latin declined because those who once spoke the language declined to decline.
Posts: 14579 | Registered: Saturday, December 1 2001 08:00
The Ancient Greeks in General
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Law Bringer
Member # 335
 written Tuesday, February 27 2007 12:55 Profile Homepage #103
That sums it up. We know the idiots are right when we can scientifically or rationally show that they are. If it's a moral judgment then we have to insert fuzzier moral judgments in there, but eventually idiocy is determined by who's right, and who's right is determined by popular opinion, and popular opinion hopefully comes from rational sources.

—Alorael, who incidentally intended to say in his original comparison of Darwin, Lamarck, and Aristotle that Aristotle wasn't a scientist. Lamarck's status as a scientist is debatable, since he changed his opinions based on observation but then essentially started making things up. Of course, Darwin's status is equally contestable, since he also observed and then hypothesized. His hypothesis just turns out to be accurate, so he's not one of the raving idiots.
Posts: 14579 | Registered: Saturday, December 1 2001 08:00
Is possible? in Avernum 4
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Law Bringer
Member # 335
 written Tuesday, February 27 2007 12:42 Profile Homepage #12
El escibir es lo más difícil, pero podemos entender lo que dijiste y esto es lo más importante. No recuerdo exactamente como entrar, pero es posible. Habla con Kabraxaz, el lider de los vahnatai, y busca unas palancas. A veces no es fácil verlas.

—Alorael, who will add for the English speakers that Blake is stuck outside the Basalt Fortress and can't get the doors open. Is there any particular trick to it?
Posts: 14579 | Registered: Saturday, December 1 2001 08:00
Bots? in General
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Law Bringer
Member # 335
 written Tuesday, February 27 2007 12:21 Profile Homepage #63
quote:
Originally written by Emperor Tullegolar:

Uhg, you really are one of them. Just when I was starting to think I could trust you, you turn around and sink to their level with all the smileys, lame jokes and meta-posting. I am sorely disappointed. It's almost as if your account was hacked into by Alorael or something.
Hey, I resent that! I never use smileys.

—Alorael, who believes the status of alright as a full-fledged word is still debated. But that's all right.
Posts: 14579 | Registered: Saturday, December 1 2001 08:00
Nethergate: Resurrection in Nethergate
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Law Bringer
Member # 335
 written Tuesday, February 27 2007 12:18 Profile Homepage #28
The FTP download of the full version for BoE (and now the original Nethergate?) seems to have worked out fine. I imagine that Jeff would do the same for N:R (new abbreviation!) if the demo is incomplete. On the other hand, he's also moved away from incomplete demos and returned to registration codes, so it's likely he'll stick with those.

—Alorael, who is somewhat curious about how easily Nethergate can be imported into BoA or equivalent engine. The terrain and graphics should be easy, but the dialogue will require work. How much did underlying mechanics change, and how much should be applied to Nethergate?
Posts: 14579 | Registered: Saturday, December 1 2001 08:00
Singleton in Avernum 4
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Law Bringer
Member # 335
 written Tuesday, February 27 2007 12:14 Profile Homepage #15
I always find bows useful enough in A4 that the bonus to your archery is very helpful, and Gymnastics is nice too. I prefer a sword and shield to a spear for a singleton, although I know others disagree, so there's no reason to take a slith. Even with a polearm you don't really get all that much benefit, and the 10% fire resistance is negligible.

—Alorael, who isn't all that caught up on race in the end. As long as you're Divinely Touched everything will work out fine.
Posts: 14579 | Registered: Saturday, December 1 2001 08:00
Quessa-Uss in Geneforge 4: Rebellion
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Law Bringer
Member # 335
 written Tuesday, February 27 2007 12:03 Profile Homepage #11
There are a few places that inexplicably kill you by absurd damage, but most instant kill scripts do just that. You die instantly.

—Alorael, who thinks that cheating still raises the question of whether the cap just prevents you from adding more points or whether sooner or later the points stop counting.
Posts: 14579 | Registered: Saturday, December 1 2001 08:00
Singleton in Avernum 4
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Law Bringer
Member # 335
 written Monday, February 26 2007 20:28 Profile Homepage #8
Although I've never finished A3 with a singleton, I'm not convinced humans are best. There are only a few guards wandering around you have to dodge if you're not human, and that's largely the extent of racism in Valorim. The real question is whether the experience penalty pays off.

—Alorael, who is sure that all the Avernums have been beaten with singletons on torment. All of them have been beaten with even more crippled characters. No magic? No magic items either? No equipment and no training? It's been done.
Posts: 14579 | Registered: Saturday, December 1 2001 08:00
Avernum's Better in The Avernum Trilogy
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Law Bringer
Member # 335
 written Monday, February 26 2007 17:26 Profile Homepage #1
Elevation. Skill system. Dialogue system. Existence of Lost Bahssikava.

—Alorael, who admits that it's not a very impressive list written like that. He does, in fact, prefer Avernum anyway.
Posts: 14579 | Registered: Saturday, December 1 2001 08:00
The best creations? in Geneforge 4: Rebellion
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Law Bringer
Member # 335
 written Monday, February 26 2007 17:24 Profile Homepage #2
What you want to use depends on where you are, how much essence you have, and how you're playing. Wingbolts and drayks are generally good. I haven't been using gazers much, so I can't comment. For the first half or two thirds of the game nothing gives the same bang for your buck as fyoras and cryoas.

—Alorael, who is also very fond of using an army of five or six permanent creations with a couple of cannon fodder or temporary helpers. There are a lot of times when you'll want to be able to throw acid around, and roamers are great for it.
Posts: 14579 | Registered: Saturday, December 1 2001 08:00
The Ancient Greeks in General
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Law Bringer
Member # 335
 written Monday, February 26 2007 13:30 Profile Homepage #92
As I already said, Darwin believed in the heritability of acquired characteristics as well. Darwin's fame isn't from proposing what was inherited or how, it's for why, and his proposal is the basis of much of modern understanding of evolution. Yes, the theory has been modified since, but it's modification, not replacement. Lamarck was an early proponent of evolution, which is fine, but all his specific ideas were off the mark.

There's nothing wrong with that scientifically, but it does mean we don't have his name attached to any central theories.

—Alorael, who considers trying to clear Lamarck's name equivalent to clearing the name of Aristotle for his physics. They're both famous, and they both had some good ideas, but they were both wrong. (Okay, Lamarck was more of a scientist than Aristotle, so his work should be more respected than Aristotle's armchair physics.)
Posts: 14579 | Registered: Saturday, December 1 2001 08:00
Is possible? in Avernum 4
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Law Bringer
Member # 335
 written Monday, February 26 2007 13:19 Profile Homepage #8
I'll bet you two cookies that Blake isn't a native English speaker. I'll bet you another cookie that his language of choice is Spanish.

—Alorael, who would like to remind everyone that newbies are only to be abused over failing to exercise their ability to apply standard English usage. Those who don't know standard English usage should be held to a different standard.
Posts: 14579 | Registered: Saturday, December 1 2001 08:00
Things to improve Dikiyoba's ausome story! in General
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Law Bringer
Member # 335
 written Monday, February 26 2007 13:17 Profile Homepage #188
We can debate the nature of evil, but surely you will acknowledge that being caught being evil, or even unjustly labeled as evil, is a sign of stupidity.

—Alorael, who understands that it is perfectly okay to be evil as long as your power is secure. Before you hold authority in your iron fist it's a good idea to seem fluffy and innocent. In other words, the smart evil overlord is pseud-pseudo-evil.
Posts: 14579 | Registered: Saturday, December 1 2001 08:00
Nethergate: Resurrection in Nethergate
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Law Bringer
Member # 335
 written Monday, February 26 2007 13:13 Profile Homepage #9
Why not? I'm willing to pay it.

—Alorael, who in fact only said it to inflict anguish upon others whose lives may hang upon $10. He's giggling with evil glee now.
Posts: 14579 | Registered: Saturday, December 1 2001 08:00
Geneforge Political Spectrum in Geneforge 4: Rebellion
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Law Bringer
Member # 335
 written Monday, February 26 2007 13:09 Profile Homepage #66
My experience with gazers is limited to A4, but they seem less hostile than drakons. They're mostly very, very different from humans. I don't think humans and gazers would ever get along very well, but they could live happily apart much better than humans and drakons.

—Alorael, who is a bit confused. Motrax and Khoth aren't drakons, they're dragons. They're also neither power-hungry no biased, but if they're supposed to be examples of good dragons then Athron is fine too. And honestly, power-hungriness is no moral justification for extermination. The Shapers are, after all, astoundingly dedicated to the accumulation of power and authority, and Sulfras wants power without really being much of a problem for anyone until the Empire made the unfortunate decision to imprison her.
Posts: 14579 | Registered: Saturday, December 1 2001 08:00
Nethergate: Resurrection in Nethergate
Or else o'erleap.
Law Bringer
Member # 335
 written Monday, February 26 2007 09:18 Profile Homepage #6
I'd pay $25 for this. Getting it for $10 is fantastic.

—Alorael, who is even happier to know that the Nethergate/Avernum engine and all its evolutions have not been entirely cast aside. It's still his favorite Spiderweb engine.
Posts: 14579 | Registered: Saturday, December 1 2001 08:00
Geneforge Political Spectrum in Geneforge 4: Rebellion
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Law Bringer
Member # 335
 written Sunday, February 25 2007 21:01 Profile Homepage #59
Is it necessarily wrong to create serviles who are willing and eager to die for the Shapers? Assuming they are functional, happy, and incidentally altruistic in a very focused way, what makes their existence evil?

—Alorael, who thinks anything that's good enough for the Restaurant at the End of the Universe is good enough for him.
Posts: 14579 | Registered: Saturday, December 1 2001 08:00

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