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bestiary in The Avernum Trilogy
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Law Bringer
Member # 335
 written Thursday, February 1 2007 11:58 Profile Homepage #29
Wolves may be extinct everywhere by Valorim, and tigers and lions may be extinct in the only areas to which they're native. I'd guess not, but it's possible. They're scary, but they're also majestic enough that there's almost certainly some zoo or preserve somewhere so that the Empire's finest can gawk at big cats.

—Alorael, who is pretty sure goblins aren't extinct because they, like roaches, can and will survive anything. They also may spontaneously generate from moldy meat and/or unattended caves.
Posts: 14579 | Registered: Saturday, December 1 2001 08:00
A Rememberance of Things Past in General
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Law Bringer
Member # 335
 written Thursday, February 1 2007 11:56 Profile Homepage #27
There are still audiophiles who claim that vinyl gave better sound than the various digital media available, but I find that dubious. There are a few records that I'm quite fond of, but most of them have been turned into CDs. In addition to being more durable, the changing times mean that I have far better equipment for playing CDs (or MP3s) than I ever did for records.

—Alorael, who still has a happily functioning 450 Mhz G4 Cube from 2000. It's now no longer doing any heavy work, but it's perfectly fine for most everyday tasks and those programs that just won't run in Classic and require OS 9.
Posts: 14579 | Registered: Saturday, December 1 2001 08:00
Avernum 5 Early, Early Notes in Avernum 4
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Law Bringer
Member # 335
 written Thursday, February 1 2007 08:05 Profile Homepage #119
Permadeath tends not to make for popular games. In the case of Avernum, popular opinion on these boards tended to be that the result of many inconvenient but not expensive deaths was more dealing with reduced parties and less saving and reloading. I certainly know that I'd reload a lot rather than allow any party members to die.

In addition to the emotional investment in a party, there's a major investment of time and experience and skill points. If you received new characters at level 1, they'd be virtually unplayable and the game would become impossible. If they were at your current party level, it wouldn't be much of a problem after all, but it would be an irritating waste of time to have to remake your lost party member. Getting a new party member at a slightly lower level would still be irritating, still waste time, and still not have any real benefit.

—Alorael, who thinks the number of people who play Avernum in order to work through all the dire suffering that can be inflicted upon the party are few and far between. In fact, he can now think of only three.
Posts: 14579 | Registered: Saturday, December 1 2001 08:00
George Bush in General
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Law Bringer
Member # 335
 written Wednesday, January 31 2007 10:07 Profile Homepage #42
He has a different sense of humor. He's the kind of person who sees nukes as birth control.

But actually, he was referencing World War 2. America wasn't invaded, insignifcant islands aside. America was bombed once and retaliated by nuking civilians with the only nukes ever dropped in an act of war. Yes, there were reasons for it, but America isn't pure and innocent.

And for the record, Thuryl is the white man. He is, in fact, possibly the Man. I wouldn't put it past him.

—Alorael, who supports dealing with Iran reasonably. Maybe that requires bombing. It probably doesn't. It certainly doesn't call for nation-building again.
Posts: 14579 | Registered: Saturday, December 1 2001 08:00
Childhood's End in General
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Law Bringer
Member # 335
 written Tuesday, January 30 2007 16:20 Profile Homepage #40
Piracy is up in terms of total number of vessels and pirates, but is it up in percent of goods stolen? I'd venture a no, but I don't really know what percent it was in the Age of Sail or, for that matter, what it is now.

—Alorael, who thinks a better correlation would be between the disappearance peg-legged, hook-handed, parrot-bearing pirates and global warming.
Posts: 14579 | Registered: Saturday, December 1 2001 08:00
Custom titles in General
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Law Bringer
Member # 335
 written Tuesday, January 30 2007 16:09 Profile Homepage #82
I LOVE YOU SCORP!!!

—Alorael, who doesn't really. He is rather fond of the particular custom title on display, though, which makes this post tangentially relevant to the original focus of this thread.
Posts: 14579 | Registered: Saturday, December 1 2001 08:00
Random Weirdness in General
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Law Bringer
Member # 335
 written Tuesday, January 30 2007 09:45 Profile Homepage #43
It's not scary, per se, but it's rather unpleasant. It's very heavy on the creepy and the disturbing. And the beetles.

—Alorael, who is oddly reminded of Lovecraft, but not in a good way.
Posts: 14579 | Registered: Saturday, December 1 2001 08:00
Endeavor and Privacy in General
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Law Bringer
Member # 335
 written Tuesday, January 30 2007 09:33 Profile Homepage #67
If he complains, tell him he just isn't up to date on current English internet slang. Dorky means stunningly intelligent and devilishly handsome.

—Alorael, who thinks it's time for Polaris to find a new home. Think Djur would be willing to generously offer Desperance hosting?
Posts: 14579 | Registered: Saturday, December 1 2001 08:00
Childhood's End in General
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Law Bringer
Member # 335
 written Tuesday, January 30 2007 09:14 Profile Homepage #31
The only way to prevent crime is to prevent criminals, and there's no better way to stop criminals than eugenics.

—Alorael, who is in fact very certain that castrations for all (well, around half, anyway) would result in a huge drop in crime within the next century. Forced sterilizations for all would be even more effective!
Posts: 14579 | Registered: Saturday, December 1 2001 08:00
Custom titles in General
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Law Bringer
Member # 335
 written Monday, January 29 2007 19:38 Profile Homepage #78
Not enough of whatever birds they were.

—Alorael, who thinks further commentary were superfluous. Archaic grammar not so much.
Posts: 14579 | Registered: Saturday, December 1 2001 08:00
Random Weirdness in General
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Law Bringer
Member # 335
 written Monday, January 29 2007 10:46 Profile Homepage #32
And I sometimes get called by my nom du jour, which I find even funnier.

—Alorael, who actually needs a nom du jour. Nom du Jour will do nicely!
Posts: 14579 | Registered: Saturday, December 1 2001 08:00
Music! 'Cause we all like it! in General
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Law Bringer
Member # 335
 written Monday, January 29 2007 10:43 Profile Homepage #29
It's become very popular for bands to declare themselves the originators of new genres. With dead guys we have the advantage of assigning them to a genre without having to listen to them argue.

—Alorael, who has decided classical isn't accurate. Neither is baroque. No, he listens to euro-baroquelassical!
Posts: 14579 | Registered: Saturday, December 1 2001 08:00
Childhood's End in General
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Law Bringer
Member # 335
 written Monday, January 29 2007 10:35 Profile Homepage #22
quote:
Originally written by Nikki x:

Edit: Also, the title sounds Blake-esque. Where's it from?
It's an Arthur C. Clarke novel. And not a happy one.

[Edit: Actually, it's a few things, especially songs. Thank you, Wikipedia!]

[Edit 2: UBB 1, link 0]

—Alorael, who on the other hand could see how psychic omnipotence would be a nice birthday present.

[ Monday, January 29, 2007 13:47: Message edited by: Nom du Jour ]
Posts: 14579 | Registered: Saturday, December 1 2001 08:00
Random Weirdness in General
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Law Bringer
Member # 335
 written Sunday, January 28 2007 20:25 Profile Homepage #27
Old but still wonderful, thanks to SMoE and Polaris.

Cello Rondo

—Alorael, who has actually now played a trio with himself thanks to the miracle of headphones and laptop recording equipment. It's not exactly a good trio, but it is a trio.
Posts: 14579 | Registered: Saturday, December 1 2001 08:00
A Statistically Happy New Year! in General
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Law Bringer
Member # 335
 written Sunday, January 28 2007 20:17 Profile Homepage #157
Actually, removing individuals from the rankings temporarily would be interesting. Maybe the top ten, or the top five, of each month, should only reappear on the spam rankings after two more months have elapsed. It would at least be chaotic.

—Alorael, who is pretty sure that most (meta)x(meta) is 0. Metas are usually parallel, as they are in this case. (meta)•(meta) is probably the more useful product, and it's simply meta^2.
Posts: 14579 | Registered: Saturday, December 1 2001 08:00
Childhood's End in General
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Law Bringer
Member # 335
 written Sunday, January 28 2007 20:11 Profile Homepage #7
Happy birthday!

IMAGE(http://www.sonomagolfclub.com/images/local/localgraphics/wine_toast.jpg)

Er, wait. Not yet!

—Alorael, who will toast your health and continued existence with skribbane in three years. For now, no funny substances for you.
Posts: 14579 | Registered: Saturday, December 1 2001 08:00
Nethergate II in General
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Law Bringer
Member # 335
 written Sunday, January 28 2007 20:09 Profile Homepage #27
The passages in the spider areas aren't fun because they're so random, but I liked the effect. Just like the difficulty of navigating the forest near the Cult of the Sacred Item in A3, it's atmospheric and effective even while it's irritating.

—Alorael, who is pro-passage and pro-bashing. He's also anti-Piercing Sight. Magic is cheating!
Posts: 14579 | Registered: Saturday, December 1 2001 08:00
Physics Solution in General
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Law Bringer
Member # 335
 written Sunday, January 28 2007 20:05 Profile Homepage #20
I have used that very basic physics to determine roughly how fast and how hard I would hit the ground if I jumped off the roof to escape from the wasps I disturbed with my painting. I concluded that hitting the ground would hurt less than getting stung a lot and that I'd still be able to keep running. Sometimes ideal approximations can save a life, or at least a dignity, or whatever it was I got out of that.

—Alorael, who was once upon a time given a problem on a test that required determining whether a plane of a given wingspan at a given height could fit into a semicircular hangar of a given radius. A friend came up with a better alternative to doing the math that was coincidentally a highly physical perspective: any plane will fit in any hangar if enough force is applied.
Posts: 14579 | Registered: Saturday, December 1 2001 08:00
A New Series in Geneforge 4: Rebellion
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Law Bringer
Member # 335
 written Sunday, January 28 2007 19:59 Profile Homepage #49
Microsoft's spelling and grammar checker is obnoxious, intrusive, and often incorrect. It's also infuriatingly tenacious. I cannot deactivate all of it, and I can't get most of it to stay off when I quit and reopen Word. It's particularly murderous on formatting.

—Alorael, who has repeatedly gone back to his old Appleworks. It's barely even Carbonized but it runs flawlessly, and it lets the one doing the writing write.
Posts: 14579 | Registered: Saturday, December 1 2001 08:00
Music! 'Cause we all like it! in General
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Law Bringer
Member # 335
 written Sunday, January 28 2007 19:54 Profile Homepage #3
Classical, especially baroque. Bach, Telemann, Handel, Vivaldi, Rameau, and assorted others.

—Alorael, who just doesn't have time to keep up with these newfangled bands with members who aren't dead.
Posts: 14579 | Registered: Saturday, December 1 2001 08:00
A New Series in Geneforge 4: Rebellion
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Law Bringer
Member # 335
 written Sunday, January 28 2007 09:47 Profile Homepage #39
Are you sure? Kiln doesn't mean hold in any English I know.

—Alorael, who also couldn't find it with the miracle of the internet. If it's not online it can't be true!
Posts: 14579 | Registered: Saturday, December 1 2001 08:00
Physics Solution in General
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Law Bringer
Member # 335
 written Sunday, January 28 2007 09:46 Profile Homepage #10
quote:
Originally written by Cryptozoology:

That's a pretty damned easy question. What are they teaching you kids in school these days?
I'm going to have to go with basic Newtonian physics.

—Alorael, who thought that was pretty obvious from the question. The original question, that is. Thuryl is obviously an ignorant hack.
Posts: 14579 | Registered: Saturday, December 1 2001 08:00
Join the Club? in Geneforge 4: Rebellion
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Law Bringer
Member # 335
 written Sunday, January 28 2007 09:43 Profile Homepage #34
Power doesn't wear a vest. It wears a suit and often is indeed involved in investments.

—Alorael, who is also pretty sure that power and grammar aren't keeping company these days.
Posts: 14579 | Registered: Saturday, December 1 2001 08:00
A Statistically Happy New Year! in General
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Law Bringer
Member # 335
 written Sunday, January 28 2007 09:40 Profile Homepage #139
IMAGE(http://www.elblogsalmon.com/images/Thumbs%20down.jpg)

Meta-spam will not be tolerated.

—Alorael, who has given up on spam for the moment. One thing at a time, yes?
Posts: 14579 | Registered: Saturday, December 1 2001 08:00
Early 2007 is when exactly? in Geneforge 4: Rebellion
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Law Bringer
Member # 335
 written Saturday, January 27 2007 22:50 Profile Homepage #9
Actually, Jeff has more recently said that the majority of his sales are for Windows. I think he gave 60% as the rough percentage. And he's repeated many times that he cares deeply about his bottom line. Given that, while Jeff may not be the most technically proficient coder or the most Windows-familiar programmer out there, I'm sure he's doing his best to make his games PC-friendly.

—Alorael, who personally thinks the obvious solution is to get a Mac. And then run Windows on it!
Posts: 14579 | Registered: Saturday, December 1 2001 08:00

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