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Avernum 4 - 7.63 (10.0/1.0) in General
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Law Bringer
Member # 335
 written Friday, February 16 2007 16:03 Profile Homepage #15
I like A4 less than A3. Significantly less, in fact. I think a lot of it is engine nostalgia combined with subpar plot, though, and even A3's wasn't much. I guess A4 merits a 7.2 in the end for improved gameplay with nothing else to go with it.

—Alorael, who thinks maybe he was too harsh with A3. An 8.0 or more would really be more fair, and then A4 could get a 7.5 or 7.6. But he's made his decision and he'll stick with it.
Posts: 14579 | Registered: Saturday, December 1 2001 08:00
Blades of Avernum - 8.66 (10.0/7.0) in General
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Law Bringer
Member # 335
 written Friday, February 16 2007 13:13 Profile Homepage #22
I was countering Kyrek's cryptic comments.

—Alorael, who chooses complete... alliteration. That last part just didn't work no matter how he tried to work it.
Posts: 14579 | Registered: Saturday, December 1 2001 08:00
Oldbiehood in General
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Law Bringer
Member # 335
 written Friday, February 16 2007 13:08 Profile Homepage #65
quote:
Originally written by Drakey long, long ago:

I believe you're referring to me. I have eight current scenarios in development, one of them being a post-Exile III scenario. One of them is pre-Exile, and others are harder to explain
So when's RiB coming out?

—Alorael, who believes TM has the goods here. Drakey still has some BEEP (did he ever copy and upload it?), and TM has all the cabbages anyone will ever need.
Posts: 14579 | Registered: Saturday, December 1 2001 08:00
The Ancient Greeks in General
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Law Bringer
Member # 335
 written Friday, February 16 2007 10:49 Profile Homepage #35
quote:
Originally written by Kyrek:

The Ancient Greek records are fairly consistent in their speeds, which points towards fairly accurate data. That means that it is very likely that the Greeks did actually row faster than us, and in turn shows that the Greeks were likely stronger than us. Their strength likely didn't all come from labor, but most likely it came from a slightly different body than us, allowing for more muscle.
The records were consistent. If it wasn't because there was an accepted standard of how fast ships were rowed based on no measurement in particular, which is something I don't know, then it means the Greeks were precise in their accounts. They may have measured with a systemic error that threw them off by 5 knots. We may not understand the units they used.

Greek rowers were definitely strong because rowers are strong. Stronger than us? Only if they rowed faster, which I still don't find entirely convincing. Different bodies are even more questionable. Where did those bodies go? They either came from nutrition and labor, which we have today, or from genetics, which didn't disappear in a few thousand years. I haven't heard anything about Greek skeletons that suggest great physiological differences, either.

It's the biology that makes me most suspicious of claims that the Greeks were absolutely superior. There's just no reason I can think of for it to be true, and I have more faith in biology than in
history and archaeology.

quote:
Another peice of evidence is the gods they worshipped. They were all incredibly muscular. This may have been from vanity, or it may have been from the way their bodies were. The same goes for their legends. The people in them are all incredibly strong. Once agan it could be from vanity or from their bodies.
We know that Greek culture emphasized impressive physiques. That made it to Rome and eventually to Europe, too. It wasn't from vanity, it was from culture, but legends are legendary. You'll notice that Homer makes a big deal out of how much those Achaeans and Trojans could do that men of his day couldn't, weak as men were then (and now). I'd call it narrative inflation.

—Alorael, who also has it on good authority that early Danes were capable of literally tearing monsters apart and slaying dragons. That is not good evidence of amazingly powerful Danes or, for that matter, Danish dragons.
Posts: 14579 | Registered: Saturday, December 1 2001 08:00
Win Version - Disabling "Cleartype" Font AA? in Geneforge 4: Rebellion
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Law Bringer
Member # 335
 written Friday, February 16 2007 10:33 Profile Homepage #4
And I am heartily embarassed. I guess it didn't look familiar because it was old, not because it was new.

—Alorael, who thinks it's probably not possible to disable Cleartype, then.
Posts: 14579 | Registered: Saturday, December 1 2001 08:00
Oldbiehood -- Analysis in General
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Law Bringer
Member # 335
 written Friday, February 16 2007 10:29 Profile Homepage #7
I don't think I accept the distinction between oldbie and pseudo-oldbie. If you meet the oldbie criteria well enough then everyone will think you're an oldbie, if you don't meet them at all then you're not, and if you meet some of them to some extent then you are somewhat oldbish (good word, no?) in some eyes.

On the other hand, if "the arbitrary oldbie cutoff is legit" because it's a plateau on a graph, I'll accept it. I'm just not convinced that the sample size and noise make it very meaningful. In the end, I think statistical analysis of Spiderweb is entertaining but not terribly significant anyway.

—Alorael, who finds it questionable that he's the only oldbie who wasn't a very active and prominent Ikonboard member. Sullust, who was, is given questionable oldbie status. Unless oldbiness can be lost, which makes no sense with a legit cutoff, oldbiness is really still just a kind of combination of popularity and duration of tenure contest. This would be even more interesting, and completely unworkable, if every Spiderweb member were rated.
Posts: 14579 | Registered: Saturday, December 1 2001 08:00
Experience stopped going up in Geneforge 4: Rebellion
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Law Bringer
Member # 335
 written Friday, February 16 2007 10:12 Profile Homepage #6
If I remember correctly, some of the creations in the Fens are pre-placed and some are created by scripts. The former give experience and the latter don't. You've probably killed everything that gives experience because all those critters start out closer to you, and now you just have to deal with worthless leftovers.

—Alorael, who thinks this is the time to start killing everything as fast as possible to save yourself time and irritation for no reward.
Posts: 14579 | Registered: Saturday, December 1 2001 08:00
Blades of Avernum - 8.66 (10.0/7.0) in General
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Law Bringer
Member # 335
 written Friday, February 16 2007 10:10 Profile Homepage #16
You didn't like the engine? BoA has no atmosphere beyond whatever is present in each scenario. Judging it by VoDT, or even all Jeff's scenarios, in unfair and unkind.

—Alorael, who still doesn't want to rate BoA. It should be a 10, maybe a 9.5 for engine bugs, but it's just not easy enough to work with and consequently too short on scenarios. And he still is opposed to rating by engine. In conclusion, no rating.
Posts: 14579 | Registered: Saturday, December 1 2001 08:00
Magic of Avernum Universe: Combined with Technology? (Slight Spoliers.) in The Avernum Trilogy
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Law Bringer
Member # 335
 written Thursday, February 15 2007 22:20 Profile Homepage #8
The Empire is much more controlling of magic than Avernum, but it also has far more schools, far more mages, and far more money for research. Avernum just has an open atmosphere and the rubble left from when their center of magical learning was eaten by demons.

Britannica versus Wikipedia?

—Alorael, who thinks that there have already been plenty of technologies based on magic. The vahnatai are especially good at it as you can see in the Filth Factory, the Golem Factory/ToSF, and the New Factory. The humans will catch up eventually, though.
Posts: 14579 | Registered: Saturday, December 1 2001 08:00
Jeff linked to on Slashdot in General
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Law Bringer
Member # 335
 written Thursday, February 15 2007 19:22 Profile Homepage #1
It's apparently Jeff who submitted his article on Slashdot.

—Alorael, who agrees to some extent. Grinding isn't inherently terrible, but it seems to get worse and worse as graphics, slowdown, twitch RPGing, and loading times increase. Jeff's games never quite sink to the level of forcing you to leave and reenter an area to kill the same things again, but that's depressingly common in dozens of forgettable RPGS.
Posts: 14579 | Registered: Saturday, December 1 2001 08:00
The Ancient Greeks in General
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Law Bringer
Member # 335
 written Thursday, February 15 2007 18:53 Profile Homepage #26
quote:
Originally written by Kyrek:

History is the closest thing we have to a reliable source from the past. There is always the argument that history may be wrong, but with it being the closest thing we have to fact, that basically destroys the discussion
History is based on reliable sources from t he past. If there aren't reliable sources, we don't have reliable history. That doesn't stop historians from hypothesizing, but it does call their hypotheses into question.

quote:
Also, the recordings of trireme speeds are all roughly the same. That means that unlike the Romans they recorded unexaggerated fact.
I can see how agreement makes a case for accuracy, but how does that mean that we understand their measurement of speed accurately? And isn't it equally possible that there was an agreed-upon speed that meant "heroic, manly, and martial rowing" to the historians.

quote:
In ne of their largest wars the Athenians were crushed by the Spartans. The Athenians mosstly one when the navy became a large factor in the war. Also, I've never seen a middle-school textbook with anything about Ancient Greeks.
The Spartans tended to have both a larger and a better army than the Athenians. The Athenians had a larger and more powerful navy. Both were major military and political forces in ancient Greece and both fought frequently. Claiming one was militarily far superior than the other is neither accurate nor useful to this discussion, which is, or was, about how fast the Greeks of your choice could row.

—Alorael, who finds it moderately upsetting that you had no ancient civilizations classes in your middle school. If anything says rampaging hordes of barbarians versus a small civilized world, it's middle school.
Posts: 14579 | Registered: Saturday, December 1 2001 08:00
Win Version - Disabling "Cleartype" Font AA? in Geneforge 4: Rebellion
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Law Bringer
Member # 335
 written Thursday, February 15 2007 18:35 Profile Homepage #2
Sometimes it takes more than 40 minutes to get a response, too.

—Alorael, who doesn't know of any way to disable the anti-aliasing. He also doesn't use Windows.
Posts: 14579 | Registered: Saturday, December 1 2001 08:00
I like it, but... in Avernum 4
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Law Bringer
Member # 335
 written Thursday, February 15 2007 15:50 Profile Homepage #11
Hey, she was fine in A2. A3 was a little questionable, though. And I'll grant that she deserved to die after A4. Still, I hope the plot of A5 at least leaves her fate ambiguous. After all, who would know what happened besides 1-4 tight-lipped adventurers and possibly the vahnatai?

—Alorael, who ignores the fact that Starrus apparently has magical spies that can tell him anything and everything instantly. It's good to be the king.
Posts: 14579 | Registered: Saturday, December 1 2001 08:00
Shock tactics? in Geneforge 4: Rebellion
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Law Bringer
Member # 335
 written Thursday, February 15 2007 15:48 Profile Homepage #2
I don't know. It's not a very good strategy, and I think you might do best with it by playing a servile or infiltrator and investing in your temporary minions as little as possible.

—Alorael, who could also see playing a lifecrafter and supplementing permanent creations with occasional cannon fodder for especially hard battles. In the end, though, it's just not much of a strategy.
Posts: 14579 | Registered: Saturday, December 1 2001 08:00
Oldbiehood in General
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Law Bringer
Member # 335
 written Thursday, February 15 2007 13:53 Profile Homepage #34
Imban, being recognized as an oldbie requires having been around previously, having posted with some frequency previously, and posting enough now that people know who you are.

—Alorael, who recognizes Zeviz's ancient icons of Spiderweb despite not being that much of an oldbie. Speaking of which, isn't it time for another short-lived and unsuccessful BEEP knock-off?
Posts: 14579 | Registered: Saturday, December 1 2001 08:00
I am 22 today in General
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Law Bringer
Member # 335
 written Thursday, February 15 2007 13:46 Profile Homepage #7
Happy birthday, Ash!

—Alorael, who offers you a broken link for this momentous occasion.
Posts: 14579 | Registered: Saturday, December 1 2001 08:00
Magic of Avernum Universe: Combined with Technology? (Slight Spoliers.) in The Avernum Trilogy
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Law Bringer
Member # 335
 written Thursday, February 15 2007 13:45 Profile Homepage #4
Some magic is only temporary. Force barriers last forever. So do many magic items, portals, and gizmos in ancient ruins. The Orb of Thralni only works for so long, but I don't see how that makes it an less physically questionable. Dispel Barrier is based on magic, not semi-physics arcanobabble.

Science in Avernum is magic. It has rules, obviously, or there wouldn't be labs, schools, libraries, and the like. It even involves things that are similar to our sciences. I just don't think Avernum is likely to have any natural sciences or natural philosophers anytime soon when the unnatural sciences are so much more popular and profitable.

—Alorael, who assumes that being able to blow people up is also a draw. Nobody picks on the nerd once he has fireballs to throw around.
Posts: 14579 | Registered: Saturday, December 1 2001 08:00
Oldbiehood in General
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Law Bringer
Member # 335
 written Thursday, February 15 2007 09:54 Profile Homepage #18
I don't think oldbiehood is an absolute property. First of all, it comes in degrees. TM, Aran, and Diki are all non-newbies, but they are not equal in oldbieness. Second, I believe oldbiehood is relative: I may be an oldbie to people who are newish to me, but Alec will never look upon me with anything but scorn and derision.

—Alorael, who can of course think of reasons besides oldbieness for Alec to scorn him, but despite poor choices of example the concept holds. Everyone is an oldbie to someone with the possible exceptions of Ed and company.
Posts: 14579 | Registered: Saturday, December 1 2001 08:00
Magic of Avernum Universe: Combined with Technology? (Slight Spoliers.) in The Avernum Trilogy
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Law Bringer
Member # 335
 written Thursday, February 15 2007 09:47 Profile Homepage #2
All academics of the Avernum world seem to be based around magic. Magic is the frontier of human (and vahnatai, and slith, and nephil) knowledge. There's really no need for physics and engineering when magic can do it more easily and natural laws are so easily suspended by said magic.

—Alorael, who can see Newton's fourth law now: "The preceding three laws are to be ignored whenever a wizard did it."
Posts: 14579 | Registered: Saturday, December 1 2001 08:00
A Year and a Day in General
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Law Bringer
Member # 335
 written Thursday, February 15 2007 09:44 Profile Homepage #64
Egol's desire to kill you is a good sign that you're doing the right thing. Nioca, you ought to be ashamed of yourself.

—Alorael, who absolutely thinks Llar should be rebanned. Permanently this time. And no smiley! Actually, if someone could burn down his house too, that would be even better.
Posts: 14579 | Registered: Saturday, December 1 2001 08:00
Going back to beat A4... in Avernum 4
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Law Bringer
Member # 335
 written Thursday, February 15 2007 09:40 Profile Homepage #15
Increased trade with the surface has driven the price of Returning/Infinite Arrows so far down that they're now sold standard with all bows. On the other hand, Life and Light ammunition has all been sold to the Empire because of their new paranoia about undead and demonic invasions.

—Alorael, who supposes the Castle probably has an Arrows of Light stockpiled in case of more Grah-Hoth fun. Any Arrows of Life left in Avernum are undoubtedly being hoarded by anyone with business near Mertis.
Posts: 14579 | Registered: Saturday, December 1 2001 08:00
A Year and a Day in General
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Law Bringer
Member # 335
 written Wednesday, February 14 2007 22:01 Profile Homepage #53
I'm on your kill list? See if I ever associate you and red slips again!

—Alorael, who was of course being less than serious with Zeviz. As everyone knows, threatening Tully with anything is just fine because all the mods and admins are against him.
Posts: 14579 | Registered: Saturday, December 1 2001 08:00
What's your best joke? in General
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Law Bringer
Member # 335
 written Wednesday, February 14 2007 21:56 Profile Homepage #71
Nothing to see here. Don't beat a dead topic.

—Alorael, who now has to do the unpleasant thing with the holy symbols, the pungent herbs, and the needle/ferrets to put the topic back in the bin of history. Thanks a lot.
Posts: 14579 | Registered: Saturday, December 1 2001 08:00
The Chosen Ending - Geneforge 5 in Geneforge 4: Rebellion
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Law Bringer
Member # 335
 written Wednesday, February 14 2007 21:53 Profile Homepage #52
Erika is given some foreshadowing in E1/A1 long before you meet her, and the vahnatai most definitely fit the bill of villains in fully half of the Avernum series.

—Alorael, who has no idea what to make of Ghaldring without the benefit of those two games' foreshadowings.
Posts: 14579 | Registered: Saturday, December 1 2001 08:00
Is 8 really the highest useful leadership? in Geneforge 4: Rebellion
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Law Bringer
Member # 335
 written Wednesday, February 14 2007 21:49 Profile Homepage #1
The more rebellious your actions have been, the more Leadership you'll need in some encounters. You could have done it with much lower leadership before doing some quests, but it's not terribly important.

—Alorael, who does believe it's always possible to get training with enough leadership. Enough just becomes unrealistic very quickly.
Posts: 14579 | Registered: Saturday, December 1 2001 08:00

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