Profile for Student of Trinity
| Field | Value |
|---|---|
| Displayed name | Student of Trinity |
| Member number | 3431 |
| Title | Electric Sheep One |
| Postcount | 3335 |
| Homepage | |
| Registered | Thursday, September 4 2003 07:00 |
Recent posts
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| Author | Recent posts |
|---|---|
| Ahhh...School in General | |
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Electric Sheep One
Member # 3431
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written Monday, April 18 2005 14:19
Profile
The problem with academic careers is that there are only so many universities and research labs in the world, and they are basically all fully staffed. It is rare for a new one to be founded. Furthermore, a lot of other people also like the idea of getting paid, with job security, to think about interesting things. So the job market is extremely tight. On top of this, academic work is very specialized, so that you can usually only hope to compete for a job that precisely fits your specialty. The result is that in many academic fields, it's a good year when there is a job opening. In the world. [ Monday, April 18, 2005 14:20: Message edited by: Student of Trinity ] -------------------- It is not enough to discover how things seem to seem. We must discover how things really seem. Posts: 3335 | Registered: Thursday, September 4 2003 07:00 |
| RWG in Richard White Games | |
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Electric Sheep One
Member # 3431
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written Monday, April 18 2005 12:43
Profile
What a cool shrimp! Evidently, and contrary to one's impression from all cartoons, dogs have not evolved to chase two-dimensional cats. Instead of staring at things at night to see them disappear, it is much more useful to look away from something you want to see, paying attention to it without looking straight at it. It's amazing how much better you can see in the dark this way. You can see faint stars, and avoid stubbing your toes. It really works, though it takes some practice to avoid immediately looking straight at something as soon as you make it out clearly off to one side, and then of course it disappears again. Also about seeing in the dark: it takes twenty minutes or so for human eyes to adapt to low light. It's amazing how much more detail you can make out at night after waiting a while. But if you turn on a flashlight then, even briefly, your dark adaptation is lost, and you have to wait again. Unless, that is, you have a colored filter on your flashlight. Red or green light will not destroy your night vision. (I'm a bit fuzzy on just why this is, though obviously it has something to do with rods and cones; but it really does work.) Final point about seeing at night: a big pair of binoculars really helps. Little binos are worse than useless at night, but ones with great, big front lenses are like turning on the lights. [ Monday, April 18, 2005 12:55: Message edited by: Student of Trinity ] -------------------- We're not doing cool. We're doing pretty. Posts: 3335 | Registered: Thursday, September 4 2003 07:00 |
| Middle of the road viewpoint in Geneforge Series | |
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Electric Sheep One
Member # 3431
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written Monday, April 18 2005 12:16
Profile
If some serviles can become entitled to freedom just by becoming uppity enough to request it, then the basis for servile servitude becomes servile incapacity, and not the fact that the Shapers created the serviles. That admission would destabilize Shaper society, so that thereafter it could avoid drastic change only if it avoided stress of any kind. For example, the fact that the Takers and the Awakened have arisen seems to indicate that many serviles, if not most or even all, do have an innate capacity for freedom. Perhaps at first it would be only a few serviles who demanded freedom; but if the Shapers let these go, how many more would follow? Even if servile defections remained small, Shaper society would be hanging by a thread, and Shaper society doesn't seem keen on that. -------------------- We're not doing cool. We're doing pretty. Posts: 3335 | Registered: Thursday, September 4 2003 07:00 |
| Shops in Geneforge Series | |
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Electric Sheep One
Member # 3431
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written Monday, April 18 2005 09:56
Profile
That's just it: you leave your goods out in plain view. So whenever one of the patrolling Battle Betas is tempted by your loot, it sees the big NY against every item, realizes that it's crime could not be unseen, and so remains honest. -------------------- We're not doing cool. We're doing pretty. Posts: 3335 | Registered: Thursday, September 4 2003 07:00 |
| Middle of the road viewpoint in Geneforge Series | |
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Electric Sheep One
Member # 3431
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written Monday, April 18 2005 09:53
Profile
I don't think it would be really be possible for the Shapers to just lighten up a bit. Their whole advanced civilization runs on servile labor, and many of their projects would cease to be viable if serviles had to be treated as human beings. Moreover, even if they were to refrain from abusing serviles arbitrarily, they would need to retain the principle that they would be allowed to abuse serviles if they wanted to. Decency to serviles must remain a Shaper virtue, not a servile right, because freedom is inherently a slippery slope. If I can't make my servile mine for crystals in a rogue-infested arctic waste, how can I even make him blacken my boots and wash my dishes? Only the servile himself could say whether the cold and the rogues were worse than the shoepolish and the dishwater. And if today I accept his assertion that the cold and the rogues are so bad that I may not compel him to them, then what will I be able to say to him tomorrow, when he decides that the dishwater is also too much to bear? As to the Shapers placating waverers with restraint, it is an old political chestnut that the most dangerous time for a repressive government is when it begins to reform. Every concession undermines the government's legitimacy, by admitting that its principles are invalid; and every liberty granted emboldens the people to demand more. Only if the Shapers retained complete control would it be possible for the Shaper regime to liberalize slowly enough for the change to be evolutionary rather than revolutionary. So pursuing that vision would amount, in the short term, to thorough Loyalism -- crush the rebels, so that the Shapers alone will decide how their society evolve. I'm not saying that an Awakened-style middle road is completely impossible. But I think it is so problematic, so unlikely to deliver more good for less evil, that the middle road ends up being no more morally attractive than the two extremes. -------------------- We're not doing cool. We're doing pretty. Posts: 3335 | Registered: Thursday, September 4 2003 07:00 |
| RWG in Richard White Games | |
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Electric Sheep One
Member # 3431
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written Saturday, April 16 2005 13:16
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They see four primary colors. You've got to respect that. -------------------- We're not doing cool. We're doing pretty. Posts: 3335 | Registered: Thursday, September 4 2003 07:00 |
| Training ground question in Geneforge Series | |
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Electric Sheep One
Member # 3431
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written Saturday, April 16 2005 13:10
Profile
Yeah, the golems are bad news. At quite a bit higher level I took them all out with my Agent, but this involved high speed and dashing back out the door. To take the last stage of the test I had a running battle all the way back down the corridor to the essence pool. (Well, a running battle from my point of view. The poor golems just kept getting zapped by this blurry attacker who was always popping back out of sight before they could land a blow.) -------------------- We're not doing cool. We're doing pretty. Posts: 3335 | Registered: Thursday, September 4 2003 07:00 |
| Middle of the road viewpoint in Geneforge Series | |
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Electric Sheep One
Member # 3431
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written Saturday, April 16 2005 07:12
Profile
But the non-aligned path was Loyalist, just bypassing Zakary. -------------------- We're not doing cool. We're doing pretty. Posts: 3335 | Registered: Thursday, September 4 2003 07:00 |
| Display Warrens and Crumbled Lab [SPOILERS] in Geneforge Series | |
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Electric Sheep One
Member # 3431
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written Friday, April 15 2005 18:16
Profile
Double posting because this is (small) news. After the Shapers regain control of Gull Island, they send a golem to clean up the Crumbling Lab, and you can indeed get into that NW room. There are a few minor goodies there, but nothing remarkable. -------------------- We're not doing cool. We're doing pretty. Posts: 3335 | Registered: Thursday, September 4 2003 07:00 |
| Recipes in Geneforge Series | |
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Electric Sheep One
Member # 3431
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written Friday, April 15 2005 15:18
Profile
When you haste your AP gets multiplied by 1.5. The upper limit seems to be 19.5, hasting from a base of 13. But 18 is plenty. -------------------- We're not doing cool. We're doing pretty. Posts: 3335 | Registered: Thursday, September 4 2003 07:00 |
| The Geneforge- DO NOT READ IF YOU DON'T WANT TO KNOW in Geneforge Series | |
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Electric Sheep One
Member # 3431
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written Friday, April 15 2005 10:17
Profile
Loyalist singleton Agent, on Torment. I'm leaving the Monastery Caves to last; I just finished The Geneforge. Litalia was easy, but not really disappointing -- she took a lot of Kills, and there's just not much that could survive against 18 AP, a high Quick Action, and a convenient doorway nearby. I didn't have enough mechanics to turn Akhari Blaze's creatures against him; I just turned them off. But Akhari Blaze himself was by far the toughest monster so far, because he was fast. If I had forged the Avenger's Ring before meeting him he might have been a lot easier, but as it was he had me beat on Quick Action, and I had to do a lot of running back and forth to keep him from killing me. I thought he was quite a decent final boss (not counting the Caves) -- much more impressive than Easss, who went down to straight Kills even on Torment, because he got so stunned. I liked just pouring the Geneforge down the drain. After all that explosive fuss in G2, as the improbable effect of tossing in the special gloves, this was unexpectedly neat and sensible. If I used the Quicksilver Bulwark I could get 19.5 AP, but I don't think it's worth it. The Essence Aegis is more help to me. -------------------- We're not doing cool. We're doing pretty. Posts: 3335 | Registered: Thursday, September 4 2003 07:00 |
| Conversation bug at the Geneforge? (SPOILERS) in Geneforge Series | |
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Electric Sheep One
Member # 3431
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written Friday, April 15 2005 10:00
Profile
I didn't have enough Leadership for that option, but while we're talking about Geneforge dialog problems: You kick away Akhari Blaze's claw as he reaches for the Geneforge, even if you kill him many rooms away from it. This doesn't make sense. He's pretty cool, though. Makes Easss look like a wimp. -------------------- We're not doing cool. We're doing pretty. Posts: 3335 | Registered: Thursday, September 4 2003 07:00 |
| Lighting Girdle in Geneforge Series | |
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Electric Sheep One
Member # 3431
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written Friday, April 15 2005 06:40
Profile
The Lightning Girdle is indeed made with a Solidified Flame instead of a Deep Focus Orb. The problem is that the recipe you find in the game seems to agree with Drakefyre's Recipes topic: it calls for an 'orb'. This amounts to a serious bug. I got a second Drakon Skin from Orois Blaze (spelling?) -- the merchant drakon. I haven't found a second Purified Essence yet, though, or a second Deep Focus Orb. I believe I've been everywhere except Monastery Caves. Where did I miss it? [ Friday, April 15, 2005 10:03: Message edited by: Student of Trinity ] -------------------- We're not doing cool. We're doing pretty. Posts: 3335 | Registered: Thursday, September 4 2003 07:00 |
| Weird bug on Isle of Spears in Geneforge Series | |
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Electric Sheep One
Member # 3431
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written Friday, April 15 2005 06:35
Profile
This weirdness starts small, but it grows. I killed Drixiss as soon as I stepped off the boat on the Isle of Spears. (Quite a cool surprise to be challenged by such a formidable enemy right at the dock.) But I didn't meet Swanwick's party at the south edge of that screen. I only found them later when I found my own way to their Besieged Camp. Then, much later, I happened to enter that eastern dock screen from the south, and I ran into Swanwick and friends, telling me to hurry south after them to get warm. Okayyyy ... but then immediately there pops up a conversation with the Mage that is with Swanwick. It's his picture and name 'Mage' at the top, but his lines are those spoken by the late Drixiss when he met me at the dock to the north several days before. We repeat that dialog, which is now quite surreal. The dialog ends, and the Mage is hostile. The other Shapers baton the Mage after he zaps them, so I help them out with a couple of Kills on their poor deranged comrade. When the Mage is dead, Swanwick and the others immediately leave to the south. Then when I get back to the Besieged Camp after running a few errands, the shapers are all hostile to me, presumably for attacking their Mage. I guess the strain of being besieged on the Isle of Spears just got to everyone. Fortunately I had a fairly recent save file, so I just went back to it, and avoided re-entering the dock screen from the south. -------------------- We're not doing cool. We're doing pretty. Posts: 3335 | Registered: Thursday, September 4 2003 07:00 |
| Recipes in Geneforge Series | |
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Electric Sheep One
Member # 3431
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written Friday, April 15 2005 04:38
Profile
[SPOILER] The Crystalline Shroud also adds 2 AP, it gives a couple of stat boosts, and it's lighter (which is important since with my Quicksilver Sandals on I'm a girlie Agent). It gives much less armor protection and stun resistance, but I rush through every area in combat mode hasted to 18 AP, so nothing gets a chance to attack me. With a Guardian I'd go with the EC instead; and with a Shaper I agree that neither item makes that much difference (but I'd take the CS, for high speed in dashing through hot rooms and in disarming traps). If I had not made the EC which is currently sitting in my heap of goodies, I'd still have the one demon claw I have found so far, and I'd have been able to make the Avenger's Ring -- whose function I don't yet know. -------------------- We're not doing cool. We're doing pretty. Posts: 3335 | Registered: Thursday, September 4 2003 07:00 |
| Middle of the road viewpoint in Geneforge Series | |
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Electric Sheep One
Member # 3431
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written Thursday, April 14 2005 17:34
Profile
I always liked the Awakened, because they sounded humane and decent. But the more I thought about them, the more problematic they began to seem. When they started getting some real power in G2, they were also clearly losing their original moral compass, and I found myself missing the noble days of old Ellrah back on Sucia. But now I compare Dhonal's Keep to Ellrah's Fort, and Ellrah's dream just seems ludicrous -- something that could only ever seem plausible to ignorant serviles, or apprentices, in the isolation of a place like Sucia Island, where the reality of Shaper power was a fading memory. Dhonal's Keep is a cultural backwater, but it still makes the Awakened ideal look ridiculous. Serviles are something the Shapers make, the way they make wands and crystals. They are not going to negotiate with them as equals, at least not without such a fundamental change in outlook as to be tantamount to ceasing to be Shapers. Quixotic folly is not moral high ground, especially when it gets a lot of people killed. The Awakened are an understandably attractive sect for serviles, but should not seem any more moral to a disillusioned Shaper than any of the other sects. [ Friday, April 15, 2005 10:29: Message edited by: Student of Trinity ] -------------------- We're not doing cool. We're doing pretty. Posts: 3335 | Registered: Thursday, September 4 2003 07:00 |
| Favorite Author in General | |
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Electric Sheep One
Member # 3431
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written Thursday, April 14 2005 04:35
Profile
De gustibus non disputandum, I guess; but sheesh. I bet that Fitzgerald himself would have been thrilled to be shot by Shakespeare. I still wouldn't mind having a more precise definition of 'closed form', if people are going to keep using the term. All I get from le Martyre's definition is that it means 'bad', but I feel that that meaning is already taken (by 'bad'). [ Thursday, April 14, 2005 04:36: Message edited by: Student of Trinity ] -------------------- It is not enough to discover how things seem to seem. We must discover how things really seem. Posts: 3335 | Registered: Thursday, September 4 2003 07:00 |
| Recipes in Geneforge Series | |
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Electric Sheep One
Member # 3431
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written Thursday, April 14 2005 04:23
Profile
In G2 the EC was far and away the best item, but in G3 I have found something I like slightly better. So right now I'm actually wishing I had saved my components and held off forging the EC. -------------------- We're not doing cool. We're doing pretty. Posts: 3335 | Registered: Thursday, September 4 2003 07:00 |
| Middle of the road viewpoint in Geneforge Series | |
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Electric Sheep One
Member # 3431
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written Thursday, April 14 2005 02:51
Profile
I'd agree completely, except: Vast slaughter still happens if you support the Shapers. The Shapers are powerless to prevent the periodic emergence of Litalias, and indeed their recurrently reckless research spawns them. Hence as far as pragmatism goes, Shaper Loyalism still brings massive violence, but makes it be all for nothing. That is, you can't only count the cost of rebellion against the Rebels. By failing to be supremely competent, the Loyalists enable this and future rebellions, and should bear some of the shame, in a pragmatic morality. -------------------- We're not doing cool. We're doing pretty. Posts: 3335 | Registered: Thursday, September 4 2003 07:00 |
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Electric Sheep One
Member # 3431
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written Wednesday, April 13 2005 20:14
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I don't actually care about the terminology much, I just wonder what it is you find loathsome and despicable about Shakespearian English. -------------------- It is not enough to discover how things seem to seem. We must discover how things really seem. Posts: 3335 | Registered: Thursday, September 4 2003 07:00 |
| Favorite Author in General | |
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Electric Sheep One
Member # 3431
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written Wednesday, April 13 2005 18:31
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What is 'closed form'? If it includes blank verse, rhyming couplets, and prose, I'm at a loss to imagine what it doesn't include. It's everything but haiku? Anything with punctuation? Anything but "The song that doesn't end"? ? -------------------- It is not enough to discover how things seem to seem. We must discover how things really seem. Posts: 3335 | Registered: Thursday, September 4 2003 07:00 |
| Two years to the day. in General | |
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Electric Sheep One
Member # 3431
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written Wednesday, April 13 2005 16:51
Profile
In practice, speciation does not occur. :P That is, I don't think we've ever actually seen it occur anywhere. So we're talking pure theory here. I'm sure it does occur, and for what it's worth I'd also bet that it occurs gradually. But I believe that the precise mechanisms of speciation are still a subject of debate in evolutionary theory. -------------------- It is not enough to discover how things seem to seem. We must discover how things really seem. Posts: 3335 | Registered: Thursday, September 4 2003 07:00 |
| Is it posible? in Geneforge Series | |
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Electric Sheep One
Member # 3431
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written Wednesday, April 13 2005 15:28
Profile
I don't know if you can really finish the game without fighting at all, but you can definitely do an awful lot, if you're prepared to run away a lot. Much easier if you don't count Dazing as fighting. Most of the major objectives can be accomplished indirectly by stealth. I'd say it's well worth a try, and I would be very happy to hear of your progress. -------------------- We're not doing cool. We're doing pretty. Posts: 3335 | Registered: Thursday, September 4 2003 07:00 |
| Is it posible? in Geneforge 2 | |
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Electric Sheep One
Member # 3431
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written Wednesday, April 13 2005 15:28
Profile
I don't know if you can really finish the game without fighting at all, but you can definitely do an awful lot, if you're prepared to run away a lot. Much easier if you don't count Dazing as fighting. Most of the major objectives can be accomplished indirectly by stealth. I'd say it's well worth a try, and I would be very happy to hear of your progress. -------------------- It is not enough to discover how things seem to seem. We must discover how things really seem. Posts: 3335 | Registered: Thursday, September 4 2003 07:00 |
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Electric Sheep One
Member # 3431
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written Wednesday, April 13 2005 15:22
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What's weird is that Shakespeare makes it well up into the non-English-language canon as well. He's very popular in translation. I find this weird because most of what I like in Shakespeare is his language. Of course he has some profoundly memorable characters, but to me it seems that much of what makes them impressive is the way they speak. Evidently I'm giving him too little credit for being a great dramatist as well as a great poet. Maybe it would help if I saw more of his plays performed, instead of just reading them. Ever read or see Tom Stoppard's Rosencrantz and Gildenstern Are Dead? It's an absurdist play whose absurdity is lifted straight from Hamlet. I think that's spooky. You just can't get past this guy. -------------------- It is not enough to discover how things seem to seem. We must discover how things really seem. Posts: 3335 | Registered: Thursday, September 4 2003 07:00 |