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Soon there will be no need to do this in General
Or else o'erleap.
Law Bringer
Member # 335
 written Monday, September 18 2006 19:19 Profile Homepage #43
quote:
Originally written by Dintiradan:

The declining joining rate is nothing to worry about; it has been foretold. Soon, the eternal month shall be over, and October 1, 1993 shall finally arrive...
Didn't the UBB spend some time making threads from 1993? Could this be a sign?

—Alorael, who believes that the Day of the Nth Forum, where N is a large transcendental number, may be coming soon! And everyone knows what happens next. Your only hope is to be GC2ed first!
Posts: 14579 | Registered: Saturday, December 1 2001 08:00
The Crystal Soul theft in The Avernum Trilogy
Or else o'erleap.
Law Bringer
Member # 335
 written Monday, September 18 2006 19:14 Profile Homepage #23
"On who?"

I eventually figured it out, mostly from context, but I spent years believing it was some generic magicallish sound.

—Alorael, who also remembers the days when spell costs were equal to spell levels. Then, alas, came Rituals of Sanctification and their horrific costs.
Posts: 14579 | Registered: Saturday, December 1 2001 08:00
Sex! Yay! in General
Or else o'erleap.
Law Bringer
Member # 335
 written Monday, September 18 2006 19:12 Profile Homepage #8
There's nothing recent about environment affecting phenotype. We've known that there's more to us than just genes for a while. Actually, there have been several studies showing links between preferred flavors and genetics, too, so make of preference what you will.

On the other hand, it is preference. I think nobody has suggested (yet) that genes can give everyone uncontrollable urges. You can prefer without acting upon it. Ultimately, the origin of homosexuality is only of importance in trying to cure or prevent it, which isn't something that strikes me as particularly beneficial. Isn't overpopulation a problem?

—Alorael, who thinks that pedophilia should probably be left out of the thread. These are family boards, remember? Actually, don't be terribly surprised by summary locking, but do try to remain civil.
Posts: 14579 | Registered: Saturday, December 1 2001 08:00
Soon there will be no need to do this in General
Or else o'erleap.
Law Bringer
Member # 335
 written Monday, September 18 2006 12:45 Profile Homepage #26
Aran always collects and posts this information on the 17th.

—Alorael, who must also duly note that Aran always stretches the boundaries of 17.
Posts: 14579 | Registered: Saturday, December 1 2001 08:00
The Crystal Soul theft in The Avernum Trilogy
Or else o'erleap.
Law Bringer
Member # 335
 written Monday, September 18 2006 12:44 Profile Homepage #20
That's what I meant. Actually, I think all versions of E1 have the same sounds, but that's good. Accept no substitutes!

—Alorael, who is especially fond of "Cool!" and, of course, the GIFTS sounds. Are those the only ones to survive through the entire trilogy?
Posts: 14579 | Registered: Saturday, December 1 2001 08:00
Crystal Souls in General
Or else o'erleap.
Law Bringer
Member # 335
 written Monday, September 18 2006 07:54 Profile Homepage #13
Newton and da Vinci are widely acclaimed as the smartest people ever. It's hard to know whether that's true or not, but I figure smart people are always useful.

—Alorael, who is also quite sure that Leonardo could have kept churning out ideas. They may have become more and more Leonard da Quirm-esque, but they'd still be ideas.
Posts: 14579 | Registered: Saturday, December 1 2001 08:00
An insane idea, but... in Avernum 4
Or else o'erleap.
Law Bringer
Member # 335
 written Monday, September 18 2006 07:52 Profile Homepage #20
No, he said it about A4 too. He was wrong, of course.

—Alorael, who need only point to the SEP to explain all the misinformation and betrayal.
Posts: 14579 | Registered: Saturday, December 1 2001 08:00
Soon there will be no need to do this in General
Or else o'erleap.
Law Bringer
Member # 335
 written Monday, September 18 2006 07:50 Profile Homepage #20
I blame TM's absence. The decrease in anger has greatly reduced ranting both by and at him.

—Alorael, who wonders if the average post length has gone down too. Maybe Spiderweb is regressing into silence punctuated by a few grunts and mumbles.
Posts: 14579 | Registered: Saturday, December 1 2001 08:00
Crystal Souls in General
Or else o'erleap.
Law Bringer
Member # 335
 written Sunday, September 17 2006 20:45 Profile Homepage #1
Pre-mercury Newton.

Oh, and Mark Twain.

—Alorael, who can see some problematic repercussions of having immortal politicians. The Supreme Court could become very moribund.
Posts: 14579 | Registered: Saturday, December 1 2001 08:00
The Crystal Soul theft in The Avernum Trilogy
Or else o'erleap.
Law Bringer
Member # 335
 written Saturday, September 16 2006 15:31 Profile Homepage #18
The Mac version works fine in Classic. Thanks!

—Alorael, who realizes that he probably has v1.1 himself, not 1.0 like he thought. But it's definitely pre-AP and there's nothing quite like the "uh-eek!" death sound.
Posts: 14579 | Registered: Saturday, December 1 2001 08:00
An insane idea, but... in Avernum 4
Or else o'erleap.
Law Bringer
Member # 335
 written Saturday, September 16 2006 15:26 Profile Homepage #13
Bipedal dinosaurs into quadrupedal lizards? I question that one.

I still think serviles have less in common with troglodytes than humans do.

I've always thought of chitrachs as insects (giant mantises) and clawbugs as arachnids (giant scorpions). Nothing evolves from one class into another.

fungi, shrubs, wyrmkin, and hellhounds were all added to Avernum in A4 mainly as a vehicle for Geneforge graphics. I find them questionable.

—Alorael, who still thinks evolution in general is overkill. Unless you are positing hundreds of thousands of years between Geneforge and Avernum, it's not possible. If you are, where are the rayguns?
Posts: 14579 | Registered: Saturday, December 1 2001 08:00
An insane idea, but... in Avernum 4
Or else o'erleap.
Law Bringer
Member # 335
 written Saturday, September 16 2006 12:12 Profile Homepage #7
Out of the many, many types of creations that shapers have devised, nearly every single one is missing in Avernum. That's useful beasts like ornks, the ever-common fyora, and many more. Serviles are no longer recognizably present, as troglodytes in no way resemble them beyond being humanoid.

In Geneforge, mages are mages. They cast spells that include healing and blessing. Priests are a distinctly different breed in Avernum.

The potential existence of ruins from shapers isn't evidence for shapers. Avernum could also be set in some bizarre distant future of Earth, but there's no evidence for that either.

—Alorael, who thinks in the end that a link between Geneforge and Avernum can be fabricated, of course. Occam's Razor says no.
Posts: 14579 | Registered: Saturday, December 1 2001 08:00
An insane idea, but... in Avernum 4
Or else o'erleap.
Law Bringer
Member # 335
 written Saturday, September 16 2006 08:28 Profile Homepage #2
Avernum and Geneforge are not set in the same universe, do not operate on the same laws, and should not be linked.

The likelihood of total extinction of all the breeding creations, especially serviles, seems unlikely (except for drayks, drakons, eyebeasts and gazers?). The appearance of sliths and nephilim seems unlikely when there are already serviles. The Shapers strongly oppose self-shaping, and the vahnatai are not human anymore. Magical cataclysms that change the face of the planet drastically seem like an unnecessarily complex argument. Many ruins are found in Avernum and on the surface, but none of them have any trace of Shapers in them. Priestly magic can't just appear overnight, and Geneforge's magic doesn't have problems with heavy armor. And so on.

—Alorael, who is moderately amused by the similarities between vahnatai creationism and shaping.
Posts: 14579 | Registered: Saturday, December 1 2001 08:00
The Crystal Soul theft in The Avernum Trilogy
Or else o'erleap.
Law Bringer
Member # 335
 written Saturday, September 16 2006 08:20 Profile Homepage #15
The Empire can't have met the vahnatai in person much before A1 becauses the vahnatai were all Resting. There may have been more or less knowledge gathered, but no real interaction.

The Empire's presence in Avernum is focused on making sure the Avernites don't rise up and, say, kill the emperor. There's no evidence that they're focusing any attention at all on the caves. Their crystal ball communication device doesn't seem like a vahnatai trick to me. There are several Avernites who have scrying tools like that, and it's not a big leap to having two-way scrying crystals.

—Alorael, who recalls hearing that the evidence of the vahnatai didn't exist in E1 and was inserted in A1. If that's true, that strongly suggests the vahnatai didn't exist yet in E1/A1, which means the Empire can't be using vahnatai magic. But that's approaching a teleological Avernum.
Posts: 14579 | Registered: Saturday, December 1 2001 08:00
What have you been reading lately? in General
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Law Bringer
Member # 335
 written Saturday, September 16 2006 00:01 Profile Homepage #108
I'd read Cien años de soledad but, quite frankly, I don't have that kind of time.

—Alorael, who has always wondered why more literature doesn't end with several important characters dying of infectious diseases before a pivotal plot point and the others just shrugging and going their separate, boring ways.
Posts: 14579 | Registered: Saturday, December 1 2001 08:00
How would you do it? in Avernum 4
Or else o'erleap.
Law Bringer
Member # 335
 written Friday, September 15 2006 10:59 Profile Homepage #120
She gets more screen time, but that's still hardly any. Most of Avernum is spent killing everything, not talking.

—Alorael, who really wishes Avernum gave more characters a chance to have some character. Two dimensional is okay, but most of Avernum is one dimensional.
Posts: 14579 | Registered: Saturday, December 1 2001 08:00
How would you do it? in Avernum 4
Or else o'erleap.
Law Bringer
Member # 335
 written Friday, September 15 2006 09:12 Profile Homepage #117
One little nitpick: the life expectancy in Avernum is low, but a lot of that is people getting killed by sliths, nephilim, goblins, the undead, cave slimes, bandits, or their own giant lizards. Relatively few people seem to get fungus lung. Therefore, people either not exposed to violence or capable of handling violence probably don't live too much less than surface-dwellers.

—Alorael, who also thinks that Jeff hasn't been paying too much attention to the years, especially given the uneven aging of some characters. It seems that Avernum is not just on a sliding timescale, it's got separate times passing for everyone. Maybe magic gives people extraordinarily high velocity now and then?
Posts: 14579 | Registered: Saturday, December 1 2001 08:00
What have you been reading lately? in General
Or else o'erleap.
Law Bringer
Member # 335
 written Friday, September 15 2006 09:06 Profile Homepage #103
Since he seems to imply that the investment is still good if you read them all 12 times, I think investment is indeed the right term, and in my opinion the return on that investment isn't as high as you'd get by, say, swapping some of those re-read Herbert books for a few more Pratchett books.

—Alorael, who is about to pick of El amor en los tiempos del cólera in order to be a more cultured individual. He's not sure who he's trying to fool, but he is sure it's unlikely to work.
Posts: 14579 | Registered: Saturday, December 1 2001 08:00
The Crystal Soul theft in The Avernum Trilogy
Or else o'erleap.
Law Bringer
Member # 335
 written Friday, September 15 2006 09:01 Profile Homepage #7
The First Expedition never reported back because it was annihilated. The Empire may or may not have put effort into exploring further. The fact that there were ruins and crystal bits in the caves was probably no secret to the Empire, but even the Avernites who lived literally on top of the vahnatai didn't know anything about them. I'm not so sure that the Empire's agents are fearsomely cunning and competent. Avernum could just as easily have been written off as a place with a few boring mysteries and lots of deadly monsters, perfect for banishment and not much else.

I think you have the Empire's modus operandi backwards, too. They would be only too happy to steal something magical and powerful in order to learn about it, which seems to be exactly what they do to the three captured Crystal Souls in A2.

—Alorael, who thinks of the Empire as collectively competent at keeping order and destroying threats. Everything else is more or less at the mercy of individuals' talents, and those vary.
Posts: 14579 | Registered: Saturday, December 1 2001 08:00
Can't raise Riposte? in Avernum 4
Or else o'erleap.
Law Bringer
Member # 335
 written Friday, September 15 2006 08:56 Profile Homepage #4
One thing that might be the problem is that you have to raise your skills to the necessary levels for Riposte and then accept the changes and close the training window before you are able to train in Riposte.

—Alorael, who thinks that was chosen as the easiest way to prevent people from raising Parry and Blademaster, adding Riposte, and then lowering Parry and Blademaster back to their original levels.
Posts: 14579 | Registered: Saturday, December 1 2001 08:00
What is inspiring you? in General
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Law Bringer
Member # 335
 written Friday, September 15 2006 08:54 Profile Homepage #9
I am inspired by the elegance of the laws that govern our universe. Is the simplicity and robustness of the world we inhabit not truly amazing?

—Alorael, who is, in fact, inspired to do better. For example, having a non-integral G is simply unnecessary. Pi could stand to be an integer as well, and so could Planck's constant. The grant proposal is still under consideration.
Posts: 14579 | Registered: Saturday, December 1 2001 08:00
How would you do it? in Avernum 4
Or else o'erleap.
Law Bringer
Member # 335
 written Thursday, September 14 2006 19:16 Profile Homepage #111
Solely from context, my guess is that Houghton says it himself.

—Alorael, who thinks this discussion has taken a decided turn for the snippier. Maybe that should be reigned in a bit.
Posts: 14579 | Registered: Saturday, December 1 2001 08:00
How would you do it? in Avernum 4
Or else o'erleap.
Law Bringer
Member # 335
 written Thursday, September 14 2006 12:03 Profile Homepage #104
I'm pretty sure at least a few Final Fantasies were ported to PC, where they were probably still reasonably successful.

—Alorael, who would like to know what kind of villain is best for a board game.
Posts: 14579 | Registered: Saturday, December 1 2001 08:00
Finished Avernums in The Avernum Trilogy
Or else o'erleap.
Law Bringer
Member # 335
 written Thursday, September 14 2006 08:49 Profile Homepage #16
The very end is actually easier without Erika. You can probably just endure the damage you'll take while charging to the pedestal, but her additional summons make it that much harder to get a clear path and you actually take more damage while waiting for a route to clear. It's even worse in E3, where all your strongest spells have large areas of effect that will hit someone friendly and turn all the summons against you.

—Alorael, who is a very, very very big fan of antimagic fields. All those spells are more trouble than they're worth when all you need to do is advance.
Posts: 14579 | Registered: Saturday, December 1 2001 08:00

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