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 |
|---|---|
| How many new sects you expect to see in GF3 ? in Geneforge Series | |
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Electric Sheep One
Member # 3431
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written Monday, March 28 2005 06:58
Profile
Surprised, and how. Turns out, Barzahl gave up personal augmentation when he realized that his mastery of the 'canister' technology would allow him to totally dominate the personal fragrance industry. "Litalia" is his new line of longer-lasting all-over body spray. Litalia. For a man. Or a woman. Or a vlish. -------------------- We're not doing cool. We're doing pretty. Posts: 3335 | Registered: Thursday, September 4 2003 07:00 |
| How many new sects you expect to see in GF3 ? in Geneforge Series | |
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Electric Sheep One
Member # 3431
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written Sunday, March 27 2005 17:03
Profile
I thought it couldn't be one per island, but then realized that the reason I thought that was that I was thinking you would proceed through the islands in order, and not go back much to previously cleared islands. But actually there is no good reason to expect this, so I guess it could be one per island. Certainly there have not previously been sects based close to each other, so it would be hard to have two based on the same island. There could certainly be more than one sect operating to some extent on any one island, though. I agree with Icshi that more than five sects would be too complicated. We've got to have an Awakened sect, because they are one of the moral poles of the game. There also have to be some kind of Taker descendants, since there is the Taker creature left over from G2. Since we're starting in Shaper territory, there should certainly be Loyalists around. So that's the three from G1 that have to be carried on. Somebody has to be making canisters that the player can use, and neither Takers nor Awakened are likely to do that (since Serviles and Drakons aren't going to be using the same kinds of canisters). Loyalists say No to canisters. So there needs to be a fourth canister-making sect, although I don't expect Barzahl to have survived. Then there is Litalia, possibly representing a fifth sect, but possibly a Taker or Awakened partisan. Her reference to justice doesn't sound very Barzite. So I figure four or five. I guess five would seem like more of an upgrade from G2, so my final answer is five, with Litalia as the fifth. -------------------- We're not doing cool. We're doing pretty. Posts: 3335 | Registered: Thursday, September 4 2003 07:00 |
| Geneforge 3 Futhorc Runes in Geneforge Series | |
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Electric Sheep One
Member # 3431
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written Sunday, March 27 2005 14:52
Profile
Yeah, hey, where's all my praise? Grrrr. Darn bookreaders. I tell you, everything went straight downhill after Gutenberg. People who rail against the internet aren't going anywhere near far enough. Until we get right back to runes, scratched into potsherds with our Swiss army knives, I see no hope for this entire civilization. -------------------- We're not doing cool. We're doing pretty. Posts: 3335 | Registered: Thursday, September 4 2003 07:00 |
| How Long Must We Endure This Interminable Wait?!? in Geneforge Series | |
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Electric Sheep One
Member # 3431
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written Saturday, March 26 2005 19:07
Profile
Thank you, Ornk of Death, for one of those perfect poems the internet occasionally serves up. In its honor, I too pledge to leave all stabbing to the professionals who know better how to handle their Swiss army knives. (The Swiss army, for example.) Preach on, brother. -------------------- We're not doing cool. We're doing pretty. Posts: 3335 | Registered: Thursday, September 4 2003 07:00 |
| An ACTUAL G3 Related Question in Geneforge Series | |
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Electric Sheep One
Member # 3431
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written Saturday, March 26 2005 18:56
Profile
I read Icshi's custom title with a whole different feeling, now. -------------------- We're not doing cool. We're doing pretty. Posts: 3335 | Registered: Thursday, September 4 2003 07:00 |
| The Universe in General | |
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Electric Sheep One
Member # 3431
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written Saturday, March 26 2005 18:31
Profile
Yeah, them darned GRBs. All the bets are that they'll turn out not to be anything fundamentally revolutionary. But the jury is indeed still out. The main thing I learned from teaching astronomy for the first time this past fall was that we still have no idea how any astronomical magnetic fields are generated -- not even Earth's. Oh, the basic ingredients are there -- conductors and rotation and some general swirling around -- but all the models anyone has thought of for exactly how it works out have glaring problems. So there remains a certain role for the Seuss effect: Funny things are everywhere. -------------------- 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 |
| No male agent graphic ? in Geneforge Series | |
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Electric Sheep One
Member # 3431
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written Saturday, March 26 2005 06:46
Profile
Since the Shapers are heavily into genetic modification, perhaps Agents and Guardians ARE gender neutral. You're just changed to look like that, regardless of gender. Yes, I think that's it. -------------------- We're not doing cool. We're doing pretty. Posts: 3335 | Registered: Thursday, September 4 2003 07:00 |
| Poor Man's Starbound? in Richard White Games | |
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Electric Sheep One
Member # 3431
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written Saturday, March 26 2005 05:50
Profile
Yeah, ya gotta do Nova. The storylines do all tend to make your character out to be an awfully special individual, but this allows you to progress to exploits of galactic significance, instead of being stuck as the mere cog that any ordinary ship captain could expect to be, in a universe of giant war fleets. Like the previous EV installments, Nova is also slowly spawning a tribe of total conversion plug-ins. (Think 'Blades of EVNova'.) Much more slowly, because it is a formidably more complex engine, which permits quite decent graphics (albeit still 2D, apart from the rotating perspective views of ships). A massively detailed Star Trek version is nearing completion, and the gloriously chaotic Polycon plug-in has been out for a couple of years. A slew of other efforts are chugging along. Pillars of Garendall is a bit of a mixed bag. On the whole I quite like it, because enough of it is different. Many of the monsters, and most of the plot, are odd and unfamiliar, at least to me. (I do have a pretty broad exposure to the fantasy genre, but I might also be easier to please than most.) On the other hand, you have to do an awful amount of trudging across the landscape -- there is nothing like the 'green tile' feature of GF. And PoG combat is extremely simplistic. It is not a deep game, it doesn't make you think, it doesn't stretch your brain. I find it somehow pleasant and relaxing, though, and I find its story entertaining in spite of myself. There is also an active community of plug-in makers for PoG, and some of their products are quite good. They are hampered, however, by the fact that the Coldstone Game Engine has been withdrawn by Ambrosia, pending revisions for compatibility with Mac OS 10.3. For a different kind of shareware game, can I recommend Pangea's Otto Matic? It's a first person shooter, but if you have any soft spot in your heart for the golden age of sci-fi, with robots, ray-guns, and brain aliens, you will have to love Otto. -------------------- We're not doing cool. We're doing pretty. Posts: 3335 | Registered: Thursday, September 4 2003 07:00 |
| Poor Man's Starbound? in General | |
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Electric Sheep One
Member # 3431
|
written Saturday, March 26 2005 05:50
Profile
Yeah, ya gotta do Nova. The storylines do all tend to make your character out to be an awfully special individual, but this allows you to progress to exploits of galactic significance, instead of being stuck as the mere cog that any ordinary ship captain could expect to be, in a universe of giant war fleets. Like the previous EV installments, Nova is also slowly spawning a tribe of total conversion plug-ins. (Think 'Blades of EVNova'.) Much more slowly, because it is a formidably more complex engine, which permits quite decent graphics (albeit still 2D, apart from the rotating perspective views of ships). A massively detailed Star Trek version is nearing completion, and the gloriously chaotic Polycon plug-in has been out for a couple of years. A slew of other efforts are chugging along. Pillars of Garendall is a bit of a mixed bag. On the whole I quite like it, because enough of it is different. Many of the monsters, and most of the plot, are odd and unfamiliar, at least to me. (I do have a pretty broad exposure to the fantasy genre, but I might also be easier to please than most.) On the other hand, you have to do an awful amount of trudging across the landscape -- there is nothing like the 'green tile' feature of GF. And PoG combat is extremely simplistic. It is not a deep game, it doesn't make you think, it doesn't stretch your brain. I find it somehow pleasant and relaxing, though, and I find its story entertaining in spite of myself. There is also an active community of plug-in makers for PoG, and some of their products are quite good. They are hampered, however, by the fact that the Coldstone Game Engine has been withdrawn by Ambrosia, pending revisions for compatibility with Mac OS 10.3. For a different kind of shareware game, can I recommend Pangea's Otto Matic? It's a first person shooter, but if you have any soft spot in your heart for the golden age of sci-fi, with robots, ray-guns, and brain aliens, you will have to love Otto. -------------------- We're not doing cool. We're doing pretty. Posts: 3335 | Registered: Thursday, September 4 2003 07:00 |
| The Universe in General | |
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Electric Sheep One
Member # 3431
|
written Saturday, March 26 2005 05:24
Profile
Actually the whole point of physics is that it isn't good enough for a theory to work only for some things and not for others. The standard is to just work, period. How far this standard is actually met depends on what you recognize as a 'theory', as opposed on the one hand to 'speculative hypothesis', and on the other hand to 'approximation to the full theory'. In the strictest sense there are only two theories in physics today: Quantum Field Theory with the so-called 'Standard Model' of particles and interactions, and General Relativity. And it is sad to confess that for these theories, Thuryl is quite right. General Relativity is great for gravity, but says nothing much about anything else. Quantum Field Theory works wonderfully well for everything else, but says nothing intelligible about gravity. What I don't think is right is to take from Thuryl's remarks the impression that theoretical physics is a disparate collection of ad hoc theories, each of which is only good for its specific problem. That is totally not so, and moreover it is the very foundation of physics, and thus the cornerstone of natural science, that it not be so. The one true faith of physics is that nature is one, and that one theory must govern all. And although this dream is not yet perfectly realized, it is already realized to an amazing extent. There are no rival schools of thought in physics. Disagreements among physicists are almost always, ultimately, disagreements about arithmetic. As such, they are eventually resolved by one or both sides confessing error -- and the time scale for 'eventually' is a matter of years at most, not decades or centuries. The only other disagreements are those that prove to be independent of quantitative equations -- like the interpretation of quantum mechanics. This independence also becomes clear within a matter of years, and the whole issue then gets reclassified as personal philosophy, and ceases to be recognized as physics. Finally, specialization among physicists is actually much less extreme than one might think. Any trained theoretical physicist can explain to any other what they are doing, within at most a few hours, because we all share the same common theoretical base. -------------------- 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 |
| Poll with a poll: survivors in Geneforge Series | |
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Electric Sheep One
Member # 3431
|
written Saturday, March 26 2005 03:34
Profile
The prolific Harry T. also wrote the 'Krispos of Videssos' trilogy, which has a very nice 'alternate Byzantium' setting. As far as I can tell the only real difference he made was to change the names, and (ironically) to replace Orthodox Christianity with a dualistic religion very much like the contemporary Persian Zoroastrianism. At least, he replaces the belief system; the church organization is classic Byzantine Caesaropapism, as far as I can tell. Turtledove's alternative Persians, however, do not become Christian, but something else which is never detailed much. In my opinion The Guns of the South is Turtledove's masterpiece, and by far the best 'time travelers change the past' novel I've every found. Too bad it seems to have been the trigger for him to start putting out a new book every six weeks and go all blah. -------------------- We're not doing cool. We're doing pretty. Posts: 3335 | Registered: Thursday, September 4 2003 07:00 |
| Geneforge 3 Forum!! in Geneforge Series | |
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Electric Sheep One
Member # 3431
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written Friday, March 25 2005 14:33
Profile
Thanks. I foolishly forgot how old that poll was. -------------------- We're not doing cool. We're doing pretty. Posts: 3335 | Registered: Thursday, September 4 2003 07:00 |
| RPGs in General | |
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Electric Sheep One
Member # 3431
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written Friday, March 25 2005 13:27
Profile
Up to a point I think Custer has a point, but, well, it seems overblown. If you want to make up your own world and campaign, with the total flexibility involved in having a live gamemaster instead of a program, I think you're stuck with tabletop RPGs. Heavy as the labor is in making up a world, a plot, and a lot of NPCs, having to generate good 3D graphics for all of it too requires a corporation. What does make sense these days is ditching any of the more complicated tables and die rolls, in favor of scripts on your laptop. If you're up to it you can also show some illustrations on the screen. But some die rolling might still be better to keep. If your character's life is at stake, you want to have their fate in your own hands, literally. Lots of cumbersome rules can be bad, if they get in the way of what you're trying to do. It's not like CRPGs don't have rules, though; they're just hidden. Back when I was doing these games I preferred the other extreme, not of hiding the rules away, but of making my own rules, tailored to my world. Inventing rules that would provide the kind of game I wanted was half the fun. This is also something you can't really do with CRPGs, unless you build your own engines. -------------------- 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 |
| Geneforge 3 Forum!! in Geneforge Series | |
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Electric Sheep One
Member # 3431
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written Friday, March 25 2005 12:04
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But I don't see it (the one about travel between islands)? -------------------- We're not doing cool. We're doing pretty. Posts: 3335 | Registered: Thursday, September 4 2003 07:00 |
| Geneforge 3 Forum!! in Geneforge Series | |
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Electric Sheep One
Member # 3431
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written Friday, March 25 2005 06:37
Profile
Hey, moderators: any chance we could get my 'travel between islands' poll moved from G2 to this forum? It got decent response and I'm not just trying to revive it, but it would be nice to be able to find it for comparison once the game does come out. -------------------- We're not doing cool. We're doing pretty. Posts: 3335 | Registered: Thursday, September 4 2003 07:00 |
| Why does no-one notice you're a prodigy? in Geneforge Series | |
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Electric Sheep One
Member # 3431
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written Friday, March 25 2005 06:32
Profile
I guess I just feel that with GF there is a missed opportunity. The games are mainly about the dangers and temptations of rapid acquisition of power by unusual means. Yet in totally unremarked parallel with the canisters and modification platforms and geneforges, here are you going from tenderfoot to gazer skin boots within what can't be more than a few days, just by fighting rogues. I feel it would be easy, and very interesting, for the games to offer some explanation for this remarkable capability of yours. Bitten by a radioactive fyora, inhaled a few stray spores from an aborted Taker project -- whatever. -------------------- We're not doing cool. We're doing pretty. Posts: 3335 | Registered: Thursday, September 4 2003 07:00 |
| Poll with a poll: survivors in Geneforge Series | |
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Electric Sheep One
Member # 3431
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written Friday, March 25 2005 06:21
Profile
What 13th century Byzantines returning from exile? Do you mean the period between 1261 and 1453, when the Paleologi dynasty had recovered control of Constantinople from the western crusaders, but remained precariously poised between the rival Byzantine fragment of Trebizond, the crusaders' rump Latin Empire, and the looming Ottoman Turks? If so, um, cool. I know nothing about this period. Did the Paeleologi survive by famously brilliant conspiracy? -------------------- We're not doing cool. We're doing pretty. Posts: 3335 | Registered: Thursday, September 4 2003 07:00 |
| Tiny Question in Geneforge Series | |
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Electric Sheep One
Member # 3431
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written Friday, March 25 2005 06:07
Profile
Mr.k means at the south edge of Gheth itself, not south of Gheth (the Thahd Dumping Ground). [ Friday, March 25, 2005 06:08: Message edited by: Student of Trinity ] -------------------- We're not doing cool. We're doing pretty. Posts: 3335 | Registered: Thursday, September 4 2003 07:00 |
| Tiny Question in Geneforge 2 | |
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Electric Sheep One
Member # 3431
|
written Friday, March 25 2005 06:07
Profile
Mr.k means at the south edge of Gheth itself, not south of Gheth (the Thahd Dumping Ground). [ Friday, March 25, 2005 06:08: 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 |
| An ACTUAL G3 Related Question in Geneforge Series | |
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Electric Sheep One
Member # 3431
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written Friday, March 25 2005 04:02
Profile
Item q) has been done by Andrew Wiles, but sure, we could try to find an alternative proof. -------------------- We're not doing cool. We're doing pretty. Posts: 3335 | Registered: Thursday, September 4 2003 07:00 |
| How Long Must We Endure This Interminable Wait?!? in Geneforge Series | |
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Electric Sheep One
Member # 3431
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written Thursday, March 24 2005 14:30
Profile
There was Paula Volsky's excellent fantasy novel, The Wolf of Winter, about drug-induced necromantic powers (among other things). The necessary drugs all tended to drive users into a particularly vile dementia, eventually. On another note: Ah, sheet. Here I was keeping my cool very well, all things considered, and then I make the mistake of looking through the G3 teaser page carefully. It looks very cool. It seems that you get to drag along an Agent and a Guardian, probably schoolmates, for a while. And it will be cool to craft one's own items. Now it is harder to wait. Grrrr. [ Thursday, March 24, 2005 14:43: Message edited by: Student of Trinity ] -------------------- We're not doing cool. We're doing pretty. Posts: 3335 | Registered: Thursday, September 4 2003 07:00 |
| The Universe in General | |
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Electric Sheep One
Member # 3431
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written Thursday, March 24 2005 12:53
Profile
Which of Hawking's theories do you ask about? Quantum radiance from black holes -- the 'Hawking effect' -- is of course his main claim to fame; though he was already famous before that for his singularity theorems in general relativity. There is no shred of evidence for the Hawking effect. This is not evidence against it, but still, Hawking isn't going to get a Nobel prize for it, because it's too far removed from observation or experiment. Why people rave about the Hawking effect, though, is that it implies a deep connection between gravity, quantum mechanics, and thermodynamics, which are the pillars of creation, but which have always seemed completely independent apart from Hawking's calculation. So it's the kind of thing that people think should be true, if the universe is at least as cool was we can imagine it to be. On the other hand, Hawking's calculation includes one step that has always seemed rather doubtful, so even as pure theory it remains a bit up in the air. I believe it's fair to say the consensus is that he is probably right, but that his case is not yet proven even given the assumption that our current theories are on the right track. About Thuryl's contention that theoretical physics is rarely directly verifiable, I'd agree except for the adjective 'slightly'. Accepted theories simply fit the observations better, but I don't know of any cases where the accepted theory works only slightly better. It's generally night-and-day, bang-on versus way off. Or else the theory is not considered a serious contender. There are theories for which there is no relevant data available, and theories which currently offer only predictions that are badly wrong, but which seem to have potential for eventual improvement. String theory remains in both of these latter categories, as it has for about forty years, despite regular waves of hype to the effect that a breakthrough will soon be at hand. -------------------- 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 |
| Pet peeve in General | |
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Electric Sheep One
Member # 3431
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written Thursday, March 24 2005 12:29
Profile
Google says I'm actually right, but it was luck. I just decided 'broccolo' sounded better. Likewise 'spaghetto'. [ Thursday, March 24, 2005 12:34: 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 |
| How Long Must We Endure This Interminable Wait?!? in Geneforge Series | |
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Electric Sheep One
Member # 3431
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written Thursday, March 24 2005 12:26
Profile
Dudes. The glowing green goo is for external use only. -------------------- We're not doing cool. We're doing pretty. Posts: 3335 | Registered: Thursday, September 4 2003 07:00 |
| Pet peeve in General | |
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Electric Sheep One
Member # 3431
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written Thursday, March 24 2005 10:40
Profile
Yeah, but how far can you take this kind of thing? For instance, how many people realize, as I learned from an essay on this topic by WVO Quine, that the Latin plural of 'octopus' would be 'octopodes'? Or that the Greek plural of 'rhinoceros' would be 'rhinocerotes'? There's a point at which you admit that you're speaking English, not an ancient dead language, and go with the flow. It works, and it's not pretentious. On the other hand, for years I have been calling an individual broccoli floret a 'broccolo'. -------------------- 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 |